THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


o' 


ONE  HUNDREDTH 
ANNIVERSARY  OF 
THE  FOUNDING  OF 

LENOX  ACADEMY 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CELEBRATION  AND 

THE  DA  rS  DOINGS,  OCTOBER  FIRST 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  THREE 


1905 

FRES8  OF  THR   SUN    PRINTING    COMPANY 

PiTTSFiBLD,  Mass. 


■  '■,  'V  •'.*  •'•*  '•* 


LP 

7  S ' 


FOREWORD 


In  August,  1903,  the  trustees  of  Lenox  Academy  and 
the  Lenox  school  committee  met  and  arranged  for  a  cele- 
bration of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  existence 
of  the  Academy, — the  trustees  believing  that  an  institu- 
tion so  long  ago  founded  and  so  prosperous  and  useful,  for 
many  years,  deserved  to  be  publicly  remembered,  and  the 
school  committee  recognizing,  as  official  representatives 
of  the  town, — which  is  a  gratuitous  lessee  of  the  Acad- 
emy building  and  to  a  considerablrt  extent  an  inheritor  of 
the  high  reputation  of  the  old  institution,  that  an  event  so 
interesting  and  important  should  not  be  permitted  to  pass 
without  notice. 

The  following  pages  contain  a  record  of  the  day's 
doings  and  exercises. 


408499 


PROGRAM 

or   THE 

Exercises  in  Town  Hall, 

AT  11  A.  M. 


1.  Music,  .        .        .  Kingman's  Orchestra 

2.  "Festival  Chorus/' 

"Give  Thy  Heart's  Best  Treasure/' 

Pupils  of  High  School 

3.  Introductory,  .        .        .        Joseph  Tucker 

4.  "The  King's  Champion/'  Pupils  of  High  School 

5.  Historical  Address,  .        .        Thomas  Post 

6.  "Farewell  Song/'       .       Pupils  of  High  School 

7.  Music,  .        .        .  Kingman's  Orchestra 


DINNER 

For  the  Alumni  and  invited  guests 

IN  Sedgwick  Hall  Annex 

AT  one  o'clock. 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS. 


Hon.  JOSEPH  TUCKER,  of  Pittsfieud. 

It  was  very  seldom,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  that  a  small  country  village  in  a 
purely  agricultural  county  could  possess  the  county 
Court  House  and  one  of  the  most  famous  Academies 
in  the  land.  Without  them  Lenox  would  have  been 
simply  a  very  pretty  little  farming  hamlet,  until  along 
in  the  fifties  came  the  immigrants  from  the  cities. 
With  them  it  was  a  real  center  of  Berkshire.  The 
Court  House  always  had  a  very  notable  set  of  officers, 
but  within  my  remembrance,  it  was  occupied  by  a 
group  of  very  strong,  able  men  of  the  highest  char- 
acter— William  P.  Walker,  Judge  of  Probate,  the  best 
type  of  what  we  call  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  I 
have  ever  seen ;  handsome,  courtly,  well-dressed,  a 
very  distinguished  looking  man.  Henry  W.  Bishop, 
Register  of  Probate  (afterwards  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas),  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  able 
members  of  the  bar  of  Massachusetts.  Charles  Sedg- 
wick, Clerk  of  the  Courts,  a  member  of  one  of  the  best 
families  of  the  country,  highly  educated,  very  culti- 
vated, a  very  fascinating  man,  beloved  by  every  one 
especially  by  the  children.  Joseph  Tucker,  County 
Treasurer  and  Register  of  Deeds  for  over  thirty  years, 
a  man  of  great  force  of  character  and  very  popular. 
His   son,   George   I.   Tucker,   who  succeeded   him    in 

(7) 


both  offices,  was  a  very  eminent  lawyer.  William  S. 
Tucker,  Assistant  Clerk  of  the  Courts,  was  very  prom- 
inent in  social  and  church  affairs. 

There  were  a  few,  beside  those  I  have  mentioned, 
who  so  impressed  themselves  upon  me,  then  a  small 
boy,  that  I  must  speak  of  them.  On  the  road  to  Lenox 
Furnace  (not  Dale)  :  John  G.  Stanley,  who  sold  us 
books;  Dr.  Charles  Worthington,  Miss  Catherine 
Sedgwick,  most  famous  of  the  early  American  novel- 
ists. On  the  west  side  of  Main  street :  Ocran  Curtis, 
Deacon  Osborn,  William  A.  Phelps,  a  partner  in  the 
Lenox  Furnace  Iron  Company ;  James  Robbins,  a  man 
of  great  influence ;  Dr.  Robert  Worthington,  brother 
of  Dr.  Charles ;  Zephaniah  Davis,  an  artist  in  wood- 
working; dear,  sweet  Charles  Perry.  In  the  fork  of 
the  roads  behind  the  little  park :  Daniel  Williams,  a 
leader,  as  was  his  wife ;  Joel  Davis,  Court  Crier  for 
fifty  years,  succeeded  by  George  Wells  many  years  ago. 
On  the  east  side :  Eldad  Post,  a  man  of  great  force  of 
character ;  James  Collins,  another  partner  in  the  Iron 
Company ;  Dr.  Samuel  Shepard,  pastor  of  the  "Church 
on  the  Hill"  for  fifty-one  years,  vice-president  of  Wil- 
liams College,  Trustee  of  Lenox  Academy,  and  always 
present  at  the  examinations — a  great  man,  a  great 
preacher ;  Oliver  Peck,  aother  partner  in  the  Iron 
Company ;  Guy  Worthington,  a  merchant  and  broth- 
er of  the  two  doctors ;  Benjamin  Cook,  keeper  of 
the  House  of  Correction ;  M.  S.  Wilson,  who  kept  the 
famous  Coffee  House  now  Curtis  Hotel.  I  haven't 
time  to  go  out  of  the  village,  but  I  must  name 
Col.  Charles  Mattoon  and  Myron  Mattoon,  my 
old  Sabbath  school  teacher,  and  Chauncy  Bangs  of 
blessed  memory,  these  on  the  Pittsfield  road ;  and  Gen- 

(«) 


eral  Judd  and  Thomas  Sedgwick,  long  President  of 
the  Lee  Bank  on  the  East  street.  If  I  had  time  I 
could  name  many  more  men  of  high  character  and  ex- 
ceptional ability,  the  kind  of  men  who  in  these  days 
dominate  the  business  of  great  towns  and  cities. 

I  have  mentioned  these  men  to  emphasize  the  pow- 
erful influence  which  the  fact,  of  its  being  the  shire 
town,  must  have  had  upon  the  life  of  a  small  country 
town.  Undoubtedly  this  fact,  which  had  brought  so 
many  strong,  influential  men  there,  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  locating  the  Academy  in  Lenox.  It  began 
its  work  in  1804;  and  what  a  blessing  it  was  to  the 
whole  county.  Our  country  schools,  in  those  days, 
rarely  ventured  beyond  the  three  R's.  Lenox  Acad- 
emy speedily  reached  the  front  rank  among  second- 
ary institutions  of  learning,  of  the  whole  country. 
Bright,  ambitious  boys  from  the  whole  country  flocked 
there. 

When  I  was  a  small  boy  there  were  young  men 
there  from  Georgia,  Alabama,  Virginia,  quite  a  num- 
ber from  New  Jersey  and  New  York  and  from  all 
parts  of  Berkshire.  What  an  inspiration  and  oppor- 
tunity it  gave  the  children  of  Lenox,  and  they  almost 
unanimously  availed  themselves  of  it.  It  was  the 
chance  of  a  life-time  for  any  boy  or  girl  to  be  able  to 
study  under  the  guidance  of  John  Hotchkin,  the  best 
teacher,  with  the  exception  of  President  Mark  Hop- 
kins, I  have  ever  known.  It  sent  a  large  class  to  Col- 
lege every  year.  Very  many  of  the  best  and  most 
useful  citizens  of  this  county  finished  their  education 
here  and  they  were  really  educated.  It  was  the  larg- 
est, strongest,  finest  influence  in  the  upbuilding  of  this 
section.     It  implanted    the    seeds  of  good  citizenship 

(») 


and  high  character.  Those  who  know  the  men  and 
women  who  were  its  students  in  the  old  days,  and 
their  present  standing  in  the  world,  can  have  no  doubt 
of  its  great  work.  It  is  most  fitting  that  such  an  institu- 
tion with  such  a  remarkable  successful  and  useful  ca- 
reer, brought  to  its  end  only  by  the  irresistable  evolu- 
tion of  the  modern  high  school,  should  call  back  its 
children  to  renew  the  dear  old  memories ;  to  freshen 
the  old  history ;  put  the  old  stories  on  record,  and  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  John  Hotchkin.  It  was  a 
happy  thought.     Others  will  tell  the  story  in  detail. 

For  so  small  a  town,  there  was  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  strong,  able  men  and  women  in  Lenox.  To 
illustrate  its  influence  outside  of  Lenox,  we  have  with 
us  to-day  three  eminent  citizens  of  Berkshire  who 
fitted  for  College  here  about  1840,  viz. :  Mr.  Charles 
J.  Taylor,  a  very  prominent  citizen  of  Great  Barring- 
ton,  Treasurer  of  its  Savings  Bank  and  author  of  a 
very  able  history  of  that  town ;  Hon.  Marshall  Wilcox 
of  Pittsfield,  the  oldest  and  ablest  member  of  the 
Berkshire  Bar;  Robert  W.  Adam  of  Pittsfield,  Treas- 
urer of  the  Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank  for  the 
last  forty  years,  the  oldest  and  largest  bank  in  the 
County. 

It  is  well  that  Lenox  on  this  Centennial  anni- 
versary of  the  birth  of  an  institution  which  rendered 
such  inestimable  service  to  it  and  all  Western  Massa- 
chusetts should  summon  its  graduates  to  testify  to 
their  deep  and  solemn  appreciation  of  the  value  of  the 
blessings  it  bestowed  upon  them.  And  it  is  especially 
gratifying  to  see  with  what  unanimity  they  have  re- 
sponded to  the  call. 


(10) 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS. 


THOMAS  POST,   of    Lenox. 

Compared  with  the  life  of  the  world's  oldest  civ- 
ilized institutions, — colleges  and  universities  seven  or 
eight  hundred  years  old, — great  cities  long  forgotten 
of  men  on  whose  remains  rest  the  foundations  of 
other  great  cities  centuries  old, — nations  whose  ex- 
istence reach  so  far  back  into  the  remote  past  that 
history  makes  no  attempt  to  furnish  their  record,  an 
institution  chartered  one  hundred  years  ago  seems  of 
recent  origin,  and  not  worthy  of  notice  for  its  age,  but 
when  we  remember  that  that  institution  is  only  young- 
er by  thirty-six  years  than  the  town  in  which  it  exists 
and  by  twenty-seven  years  than  the  nation — that  its 
career  has  been  contempory  with  and  a  part  of  the 
world's  most  strenuous,  forceful  and  successful  cen- 
tury, we  may  well  pause  for  a  day  to  consider  its 
origin,  progress,  and  achievements  and  the  character 
and  motives  of  its  founders. 

Much  of  the  early  immigration  to  these  shores  had 
been  of  the  educated  and  aspiring  classes, — pervaded 
through  and  through  with  great  thoughts  of  relig- 
ious and  civil  liberty  and  education.  After  they  had 
cleared  a  little  of  the  wilderness  and  built  a  church 
they  established  a  school.  They  were  not  to  be  satis- 
fied with  rudimentary  education  either.  Their  youth 
must  know  the  best  the  past  had  done  recorded  in  the 

(11) 


best  literature.  This  spirit  of  the  colonists  had  lost 
none  of  its  glow  in  the  early  struggles  with  climate 
and  soil  and  in  the  contentions  preceding  and  the  sat- 
isfaction following  the  Revolution. 

In  a  message  to  the  General  Court  in  June  1801, 
Gov.  Caleb  Strong  used  these  words,  "The  whole  in- 
fluence of  education  is  necessary  in  Republican  Gov- 
ernments,— they  depend  for  their  support,  upon  the 
enlightened  and  affectionate  attachment  of  the  peo- 
ple,— there  is  no  ground  to  expect  they  will  be  pre- 
served unless  the  youth  are  trained  to  knowledge  and 
virtue,"  and  "It  is  not  enough  to  teach  children  to 
read  and  write  and  understand  the  first  rudiments  of 
arithmetick." 

At  this  time  the  Commonwealth  was  the  owner  of 
a  portion  of  the  then  District  of  Maine  and  had  en- 
tered upon  a  policy  of  granting  lands  to  educational 
institutions.  Liberal  grants  had  been  made  to  Har- 
vard College  and  to  several  academies.  The  policy 
had  been  adopted  of  granting  land  to  the  first  char- 
tered academy  in  each  county  and  then  upon  the 
condition  that  a  suitable  building  was  provided  and  a 
certain  amount  of  property  acquired. 

In  the  early  part  of  January  (1803)  a  petition  was 
presented  to  the  Legislature  in  these  words,  viz. : — 
"To  the  honourable  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives to  be  convened  in  General  Court  at  Boston  on 
the  second  Wednesday  of  January  A.  D.  1803,  the 
subscribers  humbly  represent  to  your  Honours  that  it 
would  greatly  advance  the  public  utility, — especially 
that  of  the  County  of  Berkshire  and  parts  adjacent, — 
should  an  academy  for  the  instruction  of  youth  in 
piety,  morality  and  the  liberal  arts  be  established  in 

(13) 


some  convenient  and  central  place  in  said  County, — 
that  the  Town  of  Lenox  from,  its  local  situation  and 
other  circumstances,  appears  to  us  to  be  the  most 
eligible  spot  for  that  purpose  and  that,  with  a  view 
to  such  an  establishment,  we  have  erected,  at  a  con- 
siderable expense,  a  decent  building  which  is  judged 
to  be  suitable  and  adequate  for  such  an  institution, 
we  therefore  pray  your  Honours,  that  we,  with  such 
others  as  may  hereafter  associate  with  us,  may  be  in- 
corporated into  a  body  politic  by  the  name  of  Lenox 
Academy  with  the  powers  and  privileges  incident  to 
such  corporations  and  under  such  restrictions  and 
regulations  as  your  Honours  may  deem  reasonable 
and  proper.     Lenox,  January   5th,    1803." 

This  was  signed  by  Samuel  Shepard,  Eldad 
Lewis,  Caleb  Hyde,  Thaddeus  Thompson,  Gamaliel 
B.  Whiting,  Daniel  Williams  Jun.,  Samuel  Quincy, 
Joseph  Tucker,  Charles  Worthington,  Azariah  Egle- 
ston  and  fifteen  others,  all  prominent  citizens  of  the 
town.  This  petition,  now  on  file  at  the  State  House 
in  Boston,  is  in  the  handwriting  of  Dr.  Lewis. 

In  order  that  there  might  be  no  doubt  about  the 
success  of  this  enterprise,  before  presenting  the  pe- 
tition its  promoters  procured  its  endorsement  by 
fourteen  members  of  the  Legislature  from  this  Coun- 
ty.  The  petition  was  presented  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives January  25th,  1803,  read  and  referred  to 
a  committee  of  three  who  were  to  act  with  such  as 
the  Senate  might  join,  and  afterwards,  on  the 
same  day,  presented  in  the  Senate  and  referred  to  the 
same  committee  with  two  Senators  joined.  There 
were  no  unnecessary  delays  or  uncertainties  in  those 
days.    There  is  no  evidence  that  any  hearing  was  had 

(13) 


or  reasons  given,  but  the  Committee  on  February  9th 
reported  that  the  petitioners  have  leave  to  bring  in  a 
bill  for  the  incorporation  of  an  academy  at  said  Lenox 
and  the  endowment  thereof,  with  a  grant  of  half  a 
Township  of  six  miles  square  of  the  unappropriated 
lands  of  the  Commonwealth  in  the  District  of  Maine. 
The  report  was  made  in  the  Senate,  at  once  accepted 
there,  sent  down  to  the  House  and  there  concurred  in. 
On  the  same  day  a  bill  accompanying  the  report  was 
passed  along  through  both  houses  with  the  report 
and  was  signed  by  Gov.  Strong  February  22d,  1803, 
and  became  a  law. 

How  different  from  the  experience  in  recent  years 
of  petitioners  for  legislation  to  establish  Normal 
schools  in  their  towns ! 

The  law  reads  as  follows : 

An  Act  to  establish  an  academy  at  Lionox,  in  the  County 
of  Berkshire. 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  in  General  Court  assembled,  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  same,  that  an  Academy  for  the  in- 
struction of  Youth  in  Liearning,  Virtue  and  Religion,  be 
and  hereby  is,  established  at  Lenox,  in  the  County  of 
Berkshire,  by  the  name  of  The  Berkshire  Academy. 

Sect.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  honour- 
able William  Walker,  the  reverend  Samuel  Shepard, 
Azariah  Eggleston  Esqr.,  Joseph  Goodwin  Esqr.,  Eldad  Lewis 
Esqr.,  Captain  Enos  Stone,  and  Doctor  Caleb  Hyde  of 
Lenox,  the  reverend  Ephraim  Judson  of  Sheffield,  the  rev- 
erend Jacob  Catlin  of  New  Marlborough,  the  honourable 
Thomas  Ives  of  Great  Barrington,  the  honourable  Barna- 
bas Bidwell  of  Stockbridge,  the  honourable  Nathaniel 
Bishop  of   Richmond,   the   reverend   Thomas   Allen,   Simon 

(14) 


Lamed  Esqr.,  and  Joshua  Danforth  Esqr.,  of  Pittsfleld, 
and  Joseph  Whiton  Esqr.  of  Lee,  be  and  they  hereby  are, 
constituted  a  Body  Corporate,  by  the  name  of  The 
Trustees  of  Berkshire  Academy;  and  they  and  their  suc- 
cessors, shall  continue  a  corporation  by  that  name  forever, 
with  power  to  have  a  common  Seal,  to  contract,  to  sue  or 
be  sued,  and  prosecute  or  defend  suits,  by  their  agent  or 
agents,  appointed  for  that  purpose,  to  take,  hold,  and  im- 
prove, any  estate,  real  or  personal,  and  the  same  to  lease, 
exchange,  or  sell  and  convey,  for  the  benefit  of  the  said 
Academy,  by  deed  or  deeds,  duly  executed,  by  their 
Treasurer  or  other  officer  or  agent,  being  thereunto  au- 
thorized by  the  said  Corporation:  Provided  that  the  an- 
nual income  of  the  whole  estate  of  the  said  Corporation, 
shall   not  exceed  Five  thousand  dollars. 

Sect.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  said 
Trustees  shall  have  power  from  time  to  time  to  appoint  a 
Clerk  who  shall  be  under  oath,  and  a  Treasurer  who  shall 
give  bond,  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  trust,  and  such 
other  officers,  and  such  instructors  and  governors  of 
the  said  Academy,  as  the  said  Trustees  may  judge  need- 
ful and  proper,  and  also  to  determine  the  times  and 
places  of  their  meetings,  the  mode  of  warning  the  same, 
of  electing  officers  and  Trustees,  and  of  transacting  all 
other  business;  and  to  ordain  necessary  and  reasonable 
orders,  regulations,  and  by-laws,  for  the  instruction 
and  government  of  the  said  Academy,  not  repugnant  to  the 
Constitution  and  Laws  of  this  Commonwealth. 

Sect.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  whenever 
any  of  the  said  Trustees  shall  die  or  resign,  or  by  age, 
infirmity,  or  otherwise  become  incapable  of  discharging 
his  said  Trust,  in  the  judgment  of  the  major  part  of  the 
said  Trustees,  the  survivors  may  fill  such  vacancy  by 
electing  a  successor. 

Sect.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  number 
of  the  said  Trustees,  shall  not  at  any  time  be  more  than 

(15) 


sixteen,  nor  less  than  nine,  five  of  whom,  shall  constitute 
a  Quorum  for  the  transaction  of  business,  and  all  ques- 
tions shall  be  decided,  by  the  votes  of  a  major  part  of  the 
Trustees  present,  and  in  case  of  an  equal  division,  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  Presiding  Trustee. 

Sect.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  there  be  and 
hereby  is  granted  to  the  said  Trustees  and  their  succes- 
sors, for  the  use  of  the  said  Academy  one  half  a  town- 
ship of  six  miles  square,  of  any  of  the  unappropriated 
lands  of  this  Commonwealth,  in  the  District  of  Maine, 
(except  the  ten  townships  of  Penobscot  River,  purchased 
of  the  Indians)  to  be  laid  out  and  assigned  by  the  Agents 
for  the  Commonwealth's  lands,  under  the  usual  restrictions 
and  regulations  of  similar  grants:  Provided  that  the  said 
Committee  shall  not  proceed  to  lay  out  and  assign  said 
half  Township  of  Land,  until  it  shall  be  certifield  to  them, 
by  the  Justices  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  within  and 
for  said  County  of  Berkshire,  or  the  major  part  thereof, 
that  the  estate  vested  in,  and  secured  to,  the  said  Trus- 
tees, is,  at  the  time  of  such  certificate,  of  the  value  of 
Three  thousand  dollars. 

Sect.  7.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  honour- 
able William  Walker  be,  and  he  hereby  is,  authorized  to 
appoint  the  time  and  place,  and  purposes  of  the  first  meet- 
ing of  the  said  Trustees,  and  give  them  notice  thereof. 

(Acts    of    the     Commonwealth     of     Massachusetts,     1802, 
Chapter    82.) 

These  men,  many  of  them  professional  and  col- 
lege bred,  and  all  of  them  of  the  highest  repute  and 
in  the  front  ranks  as  citizens  of  their  towns,  were 
carefully  selected  to  give  character  and  standing  to 
this  important  new  institution. 

In  accordance  with  the  Act  of  incorporation  Wil- 
liam Walker,  on  March  9th,   1803,  called  a  meeting 

(16) 


of  the  charter  trustees  to  be  held  at  the  Coffee  House 
in  Lenox,  April  20th,  1803,  at  ten  o'clock  A.  M.  by  a 
notice  published  in  the  Stockbridge  Star  and  the 
Pittsfield  Sun.  At  this  meeting  it  was  voted  that 
Rev.  Thomas  Allen  of  Pittsfield  be  the  presiding 
trustee  for  this  meeting  with  the  title  of  President; 
that  Eldad  Lewis  be  Clerk  for  the  trustees  and  Caleb 
Hyde  Treasurer  for  the  Corporation ;  that  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Shepard,  Eldad  Lewis,  Azariah  Eggleston,  Capt. 
Enos  Stone  and  Caleb  Hyde  be  a  committee  to  super- 
intend the  concerns  of  the  Academy  at  their  discretion 
until  another  meeting  of  the  trustees  and  to  appoint  a 
Preceptor  or  Preceptors  as  they  shall  find  occasion, 
taking  care  that  the  wages  for  instruction  and  all 
other  incidental  expenses  be  defrayed  by  the  scholars 
who  may  attend  the  Academy.  It  was  also  voted  that 
the  trustees  approve  of  Mr.  Levi  Glezen  as  a  gen- 
tleman well  qualified  for  a  principal  Preceptor  of  the 
Academy;  that  scholars  from  the  District  be  ad- 
mitted, as  hertofore,  free  of  charge,  scholars  outside 
the  District  to  pay  $2.25  per  quarter;  that  Mr.  Levi 
Glezen  be  appointed  principal  Perceptor,  his  salary 
to  be  "such  a  tax  on  the  scholars  attending  as  a  com- 
mittee of  the  trustees  should  judge  reasonable."  It 
was  also  voted  that  no  meeting  for  singing  or  any 
other  purpose  except  school  management  be  held  in 
the  building. 

While  the  Academy  Corporation  records  do  not 
show  the  fact  it  would  seem  that  the  Middle  School 
District  of  Lenox  had  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
building;  it  had  been  maintaining  a  school  there  and 
continued  to  have  a  school  there  until  1821,  and  the 
records  show  that  on  April  20th,  1803,  the  managing 

(17) 


committee,  of  which  Dr.  Shepard  was  chairman,  de- 
cided to  occupy  the  "New  building  lately  erected  in 
the  Middle  School  District  in  Lenox,  provided  the 
Inhabitants  of  said  District  do  not  object." 

In  June  of  this  same  year  an  Act  was  passed  by 
the  Legislature  changing  the  name  of  the  Corpora- 
tion from  "The  Berkshire  Academy"  to  "The  Lenox 
Academy."  The  petitioners  for  the  charter  had  orig- 
inally asked  that  the  name  be  "The  Lenox  Academy," 
and  very  likely  other  towns  in  the  County  had  ob- 
jected to  any  monopoly  of  the  County  name  by  any 
one  town.  Academies  were  very  popular  in  those  years 
and  were  springing  up  rapidly ;  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  chartered  thirty  between  1782  and  1805, 
setts  Legislature  chartered  30  between  1782  and  1805, 
and  the  prosperity  of  Lenox  Academy  is  evidenced  by 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  the  trustees  "To 
enquire  for  the  most  eligible  place  on  which  to  erect 
a  house  for  the  Preceptor." 

It  was  not  until  1807  that  the  Corporation  had  a 
record  title  of  the  Academy  land  and  building.  On 
May  2 1  St,  1807,  Azariah  Eggleston  conveyed  to  the 
trustees  of  Lenox  Academy  thirty-eight  and  three- 
fourths  rods  of  land  with  the  building  standing 
thereon, — the  present  site  of  the  Academy, — for  a 
consideration  of  $2,200.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
this  sum  was  paid  to  Mr.  Eggleston,  but  it  is  believed 
to  have  represented  the  amount  contributed  by  the 
Middle  School  District  and  individuals  towards  the 
purchase  of  the  land  and  the  erection  of  the  build- 
ing, Mr.  Eggleston  retaining  title  to  the  land  until 
this  time  with  an  agreement  or  understanding  with 
the  Academy  corporation.     Records   in   the  Registry 

(18) 


of  Deeds  for  this  District  show  that  in  1802  grantors 
of  adjacent  lands  bounded  their  land  on  one  side  by 
the  "School  house  Lot,"  the  same  lot  afterwards  in 
1806,  being  recognized  as  a  bounding  lot  under  the 
name  of  the  "Academy  Lot,"  from  all  of  which  the 
inference  is  easily  drawn  that  the  promotors  of  the 
Academy  had  purchased  land  and  built  a  building 
even  before  securing  a  charter. 

The  right  to  a  half  township  of  land  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Maine  had  not  been  forgotten  but  had  not 
been  availed  of  because  the  Academy  had  not  yet 
shown  to  the  proper  authorities  of  the  Common- 
wealth that  it  had  the  $3,000,  of  vested  estate  re- 
quired by  the  charter  as  a  preliminary  to  having  the 
land  fully  vested  in  the  Corporation,  but  after  re- 
peated efforts  by  the  trustees  and  other  friends  suf- 
ficient funds  were  acquired,  so  that  upon  a  hearing 
before  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  within  and  for 
the  County  of  Berkshire,  a  certificate  was  granted  by 
the  Court  that  the  Academy  had  an  estate  vested  in 
and  secured  to  its  trustees  of  the  value  of  $3,000 
upon  presentation  of  which  certificate  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts agents  of  eastern  lands  there  was  issued  by 
them  on  June  20th,  1807,  a  certificate  to  the  trustees 
stating  that  "The  subscribers,  in  behalf  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, are  ready  to  lay  out  and  assign  one 
half  township  of  land  in  the  District  of  Maine  to  the 
trustees  of  said  Academy."  This  certificate  was 
signed  by  John  Read  and  William  Smith,  agents  for 
eastern  lands. 

On  September  17th,  1807,  the  Trustees  voted  to 
sell  the  half  township  of  Maine  lands.  May  loth, 
1810,  they  voted  not  to  sell  the  lands  because  of  pre- 

(J9) 


vailing  low  prices.  May  8th,  1811,  they  voted  to  sell 
the  lands  at  not  less  than  fifty  cents  per  acre,  or  in 
case  of  failure  to  sell  at  that  price  to  have  them  sur- 
veyed and  located.  May  13th,  18 12,  they  voted  to  sell 
the  lands  for  not  less  than  forty  cents  per  acre,  or 
have  them  surveyed  and  located.  In  May  181 5, 
they  voted  to  sell  the  lands  at  not  less  than 
twenty-five  cents  per  acre  with  the  usual  al- 
ternative of  having  them  located  and  surveyed.  But 
notwithstanding  the  continued  dropping  in  price  the 
lands  did  not  sell;  however,  at  the  annual  meeting  in 
May  1820,  William  P.  Walker,  then  Treasurer  of  the 
Corporation,  was  authorized  to  sell  the  Maine  lands 
upon  such  terms  as  should  seem  for  the  interest  of 
the  Corporation,  and  make  such  conveyances  as 
might  be  proper  to  pass  the  title  of  the  Corporation. 
Mr.  Walker  seems  to  have  procured  a  deed  of  the 
lands  from  the  Commonwealth  dated  February  13th, 
1 82 1,  and  upon  March  6th,  1821,  was  further  au- 
thorized to  sell  all  the  rights,  titles  and  interests  of 
the  Academy  Corporation  in  said  lands  upon  the 
same  conditions,  restrictions,  and  reservations  as  are 
expressed  in  the  Commonwealth's  deed,  upon  such 
terms  as  he  shall  think  most  advantageous,  and  upon 
June  20th,  1821,  he  sold  the  long  cherished  lands, 
about  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty  acres, 
to  Col.  Joseph  Whiting  of  Calais,  Maine,  for  $2,500, 
about  twenty  cents  per  acre.  These  lands  are  in 
Washington  County,  the  extreme  easterly  county  of 
Maine,  and  the  Register  of  Deeds  at  Machias  in  that 
County  informs  me  that  the  original  deed  from  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  to  the  Trustees  of 
Lenox  Academy  is  recorded  in  the  Washington  Coun- 

(20) 


ty  Registry  in  Volume  12,  Page  192,  and  describes 
the  land  as  the  west  half  of  Township  No.  6,  Range 
I,  north  of  Bingham's  Penobscot  purchase,  and  that 
the  township  is  still  unincorporated.  This  region  is 
beyond  Bar  Harbor  and  has  not  yet  been  reached  by 
the  high  tides  of  fashionable  society. 

On  May  14th,  1823,  an  important  event  in  the 
history  of  the  Academy  occurred.  Mr.  Levi  Glezen, 
who  had  been  Preceptor  of  the  Academy  from  its  first 
beginning, — who  had  built  up  a  high  reputation  for 
the  Academy  as  a  school,  and  for  himself  as  a  teach- 
er,— tendered  his  resignation.  Mr.  Glezen  was  a 
scholar  of  unusual  attainments  for  his  day.  He  was 
the  first  graduate  of  Williams  College  to  become  one 
of  its  Trustees,  and  in  later  years  was  ranked  as  one 
of  the  two  most  distinguished  men  in  his  college  class 
of  1798.  For  several  years  there  had  been  some 
friction  between  him  and  the  Trustees  of  the  Acad- 
emy, chiefly  on  matters  relating  to  compensation. 
While  expenses  of  living  had  increased  considerably 
since  1803,  the  rates  of  tuition  had  increased  but 
little.  Many  academies  and  schools  of  high  grade 
were  competing  for  patronage  and  Mr.  Glezen  be- 
lieved that  it  would  be  for  his  advantage  to  accept  the 
tendered  preceptorship  of  a  new  academy  at  Kinder- 
hook,  N.  Y.,  from  which  town  and  the  towns  ad- 
jacent there  had  been  a  large  student  patronage  of 
Lenox  Academy.  He  went  to  Kinderhook  Academy, 
remained  there  six  years,  and  then  went  to  the  acad- 
emy in  Sheffield  in  this  County,  as  its  principal,  and 
remained  in  Sheffield  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Glezen  was  a  man  of  marked  peculiarities, 
but  a  most    successful    teacher    and    manager  of  the 

(31) 


school.  He  gave  Lenox  Academy  its  first  start  on 
the  road  to  success.  A  weaker  and  less  capable  man 
might  have  led  to  failure.  He  was  an  enthusiastic 
friend  of  Williams  College  and  sent  many  well  fitted 
students  there.  For  several  years  a  large  proportion 
of  the  students  graduating  there  had  been  fitted  for 
college  by  Mr.  Glezen.  He  was  also,  as  a  Trustee, 
one  of  the  most  sturdy  and  determined  opponents  of 
the  removal  of  the  college  to  Amherst. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Glezen's  resignation,  Mr. 
John  Hotchkin,  a  native  of  Richmond,  who  had  fitted 
for  college  under  Mr.  Glezen  in  Lenox  and  graduated 
with  very  high  standing  at  Union  College,  was  a  stu- 
dent at  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  The  Trus- 
tees asked  him  to  take  charge  of  the  Academy  as  its 
Preceptor.  He  accepted,  came  at  once  to  Lenox,  and 
commenced  teaching,  and  the  Academy  again  pros- 
pered. Mr.  Hotchkin  was  an  active  man  as  well  as 
a  trained  student.  One  of  his  first  requests  of  the 
Trustees  was  for  more  ground  on  which  his  students 
could  exercise.  His  request  could  not  easily  be  com- 
plied with,  but  they  used  what  ground  there  was,  also 
the  wide  street  adjacent  and,  in  fact,  any  of  the  streets 
or  fields  of  the  town.  They  explored  the  entire  sur- 
rounding region  with  their  teacher's  entire  approval. 
They  made  well  trodden  paths  to  "Bald  Head,"  to 
"The  Ledge"  and  "The  Pinnacle,"  and  in  winter, 
with  their  sleds,  they  kept  the  "Meeting  House  Hill" 
and  "The  Court  House  Hill"  too  smooth  for  any  one 
else  to  safely  use. 

In  the  school  room  Mr.  Hotchkin  found  his  chief 
enjoyment.  He  taught  the  languages,  Latin  and 
Greek.     His   assistants   taught   the  so-called   English 

(22) 


branches  which  included  nearly  everything  else  then 
taught  in  the  Academies.  His  knowledge  of,  and 
delight  in,  Latin  especially  was  almost  phenomenal. 
In  the  later  years  of  his  teaching  it  was  his  favorite 
and  oft  repeated  remark  that  he  believed  there  was 
"more  of  mental  discipline  within  the  pages  of  An- 
drews' and  Stoddard's  Latin  Grammar  than  in  all  the 
mathematics  extant."  He  heard  his  classes  recite  in 
Caesar,  Sallust,  Virgil,  Horace,  Cicero  and  Livy  with 
his  book  turned  down  on  the  table  before  him  and  his 
eyes  closed,  and  if  a  student  inaccurately  translated 
or  construed  a  sentence,  without  opening  his  eyes,  he 
could  correct  him  and  if  necessary,  refer  to  the  gram- 
mar, citing  the  page,  the  rule,  the  remark  under  the 
rule,  and  even  the  fine  print  added  to  the  remark. 
Students  were  admitted  to  colleges  on  his  certificate 
without  examination. 

With  Mr.  Hotchkin  the  matter  of  discipline 
seemed  to  take  care  of  itself.  A  large  number  of  his 
students  were  of  mature  years,  came  from  a  distance 
and  wished  to  be  well  prepared  for  college.  They 
gave  a  high  and  orderly  tone  to  the  school  and  an  oc- 
casional caustic  remark  from  Mr.  Hotchkin  did  the 
rest.  Then,  too,  the  preparations  for  the  annual  ex- 
hibitions kept  teachers  and  students  in  zealous  accord. 
Those  exhibitions!  I  could  not  describe  them  so  as 
to  satisfy  any  of  their  participants  or  give  persons, 
who  never  saw  one  of  them,  an  adequate  idea  of  their 
glory  and  grandeur.  I  saw  only  the  exhibitions  of 
the  later  years  but,  although  I  have  seen  many  college 
parades  and  commencements,  and  inaugural  and  ded- 
icatory parades  and  exercises,  nothing  of  its  kind 
ever  so  impressed  me  with  its  grandeur.     The  exhibi- 

(28) 


tions  were  held  in  the  "Church  on  the  Hill."  A 
movable  stage,  built  for  the  purpose,  was  set  up  in 
the  church  by  Mr.  Davis,  (no  one  but  Mr.  Zephaniah 
Davis,  who  was  a  learned  mechanic  as  well  as  cus- 
todian of  the  church,  could  set  up  that  stage) — the 
stage  was  duly  carpeted,  provided  with  steps  and  with 
chairs  for  teachers,  trustees  and  distinguished  friends 
of  the  Academy.  The  exhibitions  occurred  in  August 
and  the  day — always  the  fourth  Wednesday — was  a 
holiday  for  Lenox  and  for  many  of  the  people  of  the 
county.  They  filled  the  two  hotels  with  their  families 
and  the  hotel  stables  and  yards  with  their  horses  and 
vehicles.  The  townspeople  entertained  their  out-of- 
town  friends  and  provided  for  their  teams,  and  to  the 
substantial  railings  on  each  side  of  the  main  street 
were  hitched  the  teams  of  others.  There  were  no 
steam  or  electric  cars  in  those  days  and  stages  were 
few.  The  Lenox  Band,  assisted  by  out  of  town  mu- 
scians,  usually  furnished  music  and  an  abundance  of 
it.  A  procession  of  trustees,  distinguished  guests, 
teachers  and  students,  present  and  past,  and  their 
friends,  was  formed  in  front  of  the  Academy,  and, 
led  by  the  band,  marched  by  the  west  walk  along  the 
street  and  up  the  hill  to  the  Church.  The  trustees, 
guests  and  teachers  took  their  proper  places.  The 
band  was  stationed  in  the  singers'  gallery.  The  ex- 
ercises were  opened  with  prayer  by  Dr.  Shepard  and 
then  there  were  declamations,  essays,  orations  in 
English  and  in  Latin,  disputations  and  dialogues  in- 
terspersed at  intervals  with  music.  The  exercises 
continued  through  the  morning  and  afternoon,  with 
an  intermission  of  an  hour.  Nearly  every  student  of 
the  Academy  appeared  on  the  stage, — many  of  them 

(24) 


more  than  once.  All  wore  rosettes  of  red,  white  and 
blue.  The  whole  range  of  subjects  of  oratory  and 
poetry  was  covered  except  American  slavery  which 
was  reserved  for  a  more  excited  and  violent  genera- 
tion. After  Mr.  Hotchkin's  administration  no  more 
exhibitions  in  the  daytime  occurred. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Trustees  June  26th, 
1847,  Mr.  Hotchkin  tendered  his  resignation  in  a 
communication  to  the  Trustees,  full  of  most  noble  and 
generous  words  of  friendship  for  the  Academy  and 
its  Trustees,  every  one  of  whom  were  his  ardent 
personal  friends.  He  had  been  Preceptor  more  than 
half  the  time  of  the  Academy's  existence  and  the 
Trustees,  with  regret,  but  appreciating  his  reasons, 
accepted  his  resignation  and  expressed  by  recorded 
vote  their  conviction  that  a  debt  of  gratitude  was  due 
to  him  from  the  Trustees  and  the  community  at  large 
for  his  active  and  efficient  labors  in  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation ;  they  also  at  once  elected  him  one  of  the 
Trustees  and  placed  him  upon  a  committee  of  three 
to  procure  a  new  Preceptor  for  the  Academy.  He 
continued  a  Trustee  while  he  lived  and  ever  the  wise 
and  kind  counselor  and  friend  of  each  of  his  suc- 
cessors during  that  time.  Mr.  Hotchkin  had,  from 
his  first  coming  to  the  Academy,  been  an  interested 
and  prominent  worker  in  everything  pertaining  to 
good  citizenship.  He  w)as  one  of  the  first  to  en- 
deavor to  attract  strangers  to  Lenox.  He  led  in 
street  and  park  improvements.  He  founded  a  li- 
brary. He  always  voted,  but  not  always  the  same 
party  ticket,  and  upon  his  death  Lenox  lost  one  of 
its  truest,  most  loyal  and  devoted  citizens. 

In  September   1847,   Mr.  Josiah  Lyman,  a  native 

(25) 


of  Easthampton,  and  a  graduate  of  Williams  College 
of  the  class  of  1838,  became  Preceptor  and  remained 
nearly  two  years  when  he  was  obliged  to  resign  on 
account  of  ill  health.  Mr.  Lyman  was  an  able 
scholar  and  teacher  and  an  especially  brilliant  mathe- 
matician and  mechanic.  His  scientific  lectures  and 
experiments  were  fully  up  to  the  standard  of  the  lec- 
tures and  experiments  in  the  colleges.  He,  too,  re- 
mained in  Lenox  during  his  life,  and  found  plenty  of 
congenial  employment  in  professional  and  mechanical 
work  in  which  he  had  no  rivals. 

In  August  1849,  ^^-  Timothy  A.  Hazen,  a  Wil- 
liams graduate  of  that  year,  was  chosen  to  succeed 
Mr.  Lyman.  Mr.  Hazen,  full  of  youthful  enthusiasm, 
was  popular  and  thoroughly  successful  as  a  teacher 
during  the  two  years  he  was  willing  to  remain.  He 
resigned  in  September,  185 1,  leaving  the  Academy 
with  its  Trustees  so  satisfied  with  his  work  that,  after 
an  interval  of  two  years,  they  again  requested  him  to 
take  the  appointment  of  principal.  In  September 
185 1,  Mr.  Matthew  H.  Buckham,  then  very  recently 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  a 
very  young  man,  became  principal  of  the  Academy. 
Mr.  Buckham,  although  the  youngest  man  who  had 
ever  been  at  the  head  of  the  Academy  school,  soon 
gave  evidence  of  his  fine  scholarship  and  great  ability 
as  a  teacher,  and  when,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  he 
resigned  to  become  an  instructor  in  the  university 
from  which  he  graduated,  the  Trustees,  unable  to 
prevail  upon  him  to  continue  longer,  tendered  him 
their  cordial  thanks  for  the  able  manner  in  which  he 
had  discharged  his  duties,  the  active  interest  he  had 
taken  in  the  Academy  and  the  high  character  which 

(26) 


he  had  imparted  to  the  school.  For  several  years  the 
once  principal  of  Lenox  Academy  has  been  President 
of  the  University  of  Vermont.  President  Buckham 
honors   us   with   his   presence   to-day. 

Following  Mr.  Buckham,  again  came  Mr.  Hazen, 
who  this  time  remained  but  one  year  and  then  retired, 
carrying  with  him  one  of  the  choicest  prizes  of  the 
town. 

After  Mr.  Hazen's  retirement,  Mr.  Judson  As- 
pinwall,  in  July  1854,  was  chosen  as  principal  of  the 
Academy.  Mr.  Aspinwall  was  attractive,  popular 
and  efficient  as  a  teacher,  but  was  compelled  by  fail- 
ure of  health  to  resign  in  March  1855.  Mr.  Robert 
B.  Snowden,  as  principal,  a  Williams  graduate  of  the 
class  of  1854,  completed  the  academical  year. 

Mr.  Samuel  Jessup  took  the  principalship  in  1855 
for  a  portion  of  the  year,  and  in  October  1856,  Mr. 
Henry  M.  Sabin  of  Lenox,  a  graduate  of  Williams 
whom  Mr.  Hotchkin  had  prepared  for  college,  was 
appointed  principal  for  two  terms  while  on  the  road 
to  his  profession.  Mr.  Hotchkin,  then  an  active 
Trustee,  may  have  hoped  to  turn  his  former  and 
favorite  pupil  from  the  profession  of  medicine  to  that 
of  teaching,  but  he  remained  only  his  alloted  time. 

September  17th,  1859,  Mr.  Oliver  C.  Bullard,  an 
experienced  teacher,  was  appointed  principal  and  con- 
tinued two  years.  Mr.  Bullard's  active  interest,  fine 
tastes,  genial  character  and  good  scholarship  made 
his  school  a  success,  and  students  taught  by  him  in  that 
school  are  always  happy  in  saying  that  "they  went  to 
school  to  Mr.  Bullard." 

The  first  period  of  the  Academy's  school  life  last- 
ed fifty-eight  years  and  now  closed. 

(27) 


For  five  years  after  1861,  no  school  for  classical 
or  academical  instruction  was  maintained  in  the  Acad- 
emy. 

Several  of  the  preceptors  and  principals  of  the 
Academy  were  ably  assisted — Mr.  Hotchkin  by  Mr. 
Burgess  Truesdell,  Mr.  John  L.  Hunter,  Mr.  Horace 
Bacon  and  Mr.  George  Fitch ;  Mr.  Lyman  by  Mr.  Ed- 
mund Wright;  Mr.  Hazen  by  Mr.  William  E.  Mer- 
riam  and  Miss  Charlotte  A.  Goodrich,  and  Mr.  Buck- 
ham  by  Miss  Caroline  A.  Titcomb. 

The  path  which  the  common  school  of  the  col- 
onists opened  led  straight  upward  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  England  through  the  grammar  school,  the 
Latin  school  and  the  academy  to  the  high  school  with 
its  unlimited  grades  and  capabilities  and  almost  un- 
limited hold  on  the  wealth  of  the  town,  the  city  and 
the  state.  A  Massachusetts  statute  of  1826,  requiring 
all  towns  with  five  hundred  families  to  maintain  a 
High  school,  virtually  established  the  high  school  sys- 
tem in  this  Commonwealth.  Forty  years  after,  in 
1866,  an  act  of  the  Legislature  provided  that  the 
Trustees  of  Lenox  Academy  might  devote  the  use  of 
their  real  estate  and  the  income  of  their  fund  towards 
maintaining  a  High  school  in  Lenox.  Upon  the  con- 
dition that  the  High  school  should  furnish  academical 
and  classical  education,  the  Trustees  gave  the  town 
of  Lenox  the  use  of  their  Academy  building  and  land, 
and  annually  a  portion  of  their  income.  To  furnish 
such  education  was  the  Academy  chartered,  and,  now 
that  the  desired  end  could  be  reached  more  surely  and 
with  more  power,  the  Trustees  were  only  too  glad  to 
aid  along  lines  where  they  had  so  long  led. 

Lenox  established  a  High  school  in  the  Academy 

(28) 


building.  Mr.  Charles  H.  Smith,  a  graduate  of  Yale 
University,  was  its  first  teacher, — employed  by  the 
town.  Commencing  in  September  1866,  he  conducted 
the  school  through  the  school  year.  Mr.  Smith  came 
with  the  best  of  endorsements  and  more  than  fulfilled 
every  requirement.  For  more  than  fifteen  years  he 
has  been  a  professor  at  Yale.  Mr.  George  W.  Todd, 
an  experienced,  energetic  professional  teacher,  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Smith  and  remained  two  years.  Mr. 
Augustus  R.  Linfield  came  in  September  1869,  and 
taught  the  school  three  years  with  great  success.  Mr. 
Fritz  W.  Baldwin,  a  graduate  of  Bates  College,  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Linfield  and  remained  three  years,  when 
he  retired  from  the  management  of  the  school  to  the 
regret,  not  only  of  his  pupils  but  also  of  the  whole 
community. 

In  September  1874,  Mr.  Harlan  H.  Ballard,  then 
just  graduated  from  Williams  College  among  the  first 
in  his  class,  was  employed  as  teacher  of  the  school, 
which  he  so  well  conducted  for  six  years,  as  to  satisfy 
the  Trustees  that  it  would  be  wise  to  reopen  the 
Academy  with  Mr.  Ballard  as  Preceptor,  the  town 
having  completed  a  commodious  school  building  of  its 
own  into  which  it  had  decided  to  remove  its  High 
School.  Mr.  Ballard  entered  upon  his  new  duties  as 
Preceptor  of  the  oldest  academy  in  Berkshire  with  in- 
terest and  zeal.  His  ability  as  a  teacher  had  been 
shown  in  the  High  School;  many  Lenox  students 
preferred  the  Academy  under  Mr.  Ballard  to  the 
High  School  and  students  came  from  other  towns 
and  from  cities  and  the  old  Academy  resumed  its 
former  reputation  as  an  "institution  of  sound  learning 
upon  its   old   site,  in  the  midst  of  its  former  tradi- 

( 29  ) 


tions."  Mr.  Ballard  continued  in  the  Academy  until 
1886,  but  the  competition  of  other  academies  and 
richly  endowed  and  generously  supported  high 
schools  was  such  that  both  Mr.  Ballard  and  the  Trus- 
tees were  convinced  that  it  would  not  be  wise  to 
further  continue  the  Academy  as  an  independent 
school. 

Under  an  agreement  between  the  town  and  the 
Trustees  by  which  the  town  agreed  to  maintain  the 
Academy  building  in  good  repair,  the  town  in  1892 
again  installed  its  High  School  in  the  Academy, 
where  the  school  has  since  been  conducted  very  suc- 
cessfully by  Mr.  Lyman  M.  Rowland,  a  Williams 
graduate  of  1890. 

The  Academy  building  has  remained,  substantially 
the  same,  since  its  erection  before  1803,  and  its  com- 
pletion in  1 8 10,  when  the  Treasurer  of  the  corpora- 
tion was  directed  to  collect  all  subscription  dues, 
finish  the  building  and  purchase  a  bell.  That  same 
bell  hangs  where  it  was  then  placed  and  where  it  has 
been  rung  regularly   and   irregularly  ever  since. 

About  the  year  1841  some  unusual  repairs  becom- 
ing necessary  they  were  made  with  money  collected 
by  Mr.  Hotchkin.  In  1880  the  Trustees  expended 
$3,290.06  in  removing  the  building  twenty  feet  south 
of  its  original  location,  placing  it  upon  a  new  founda- 
tion, and  in  other  improvements.  Of  this  expenditure 
$2,900  was  received  from  subscriptions.  In  1892 
the  town  expended  $1,943  in  general  repairs,  and  in 
1895,  $1,417  in  enlarging  the  building  by  moving  its 
west  side  wall  twelve  feet  westerly.  The  building 
has  well  answered  its  purpose  and  we  prize  it  now 
for  what  it  has  witnessed  and  aided. 

(30) 


No  institution  of  a  public  or  corporate  nature  can 
depend  entirely  on  good  detail  management  however 
valuable  that  may  be.  It  needs  also  sympathetic, 
watchful  and  generous  oversight.  Such  oversight  the 
Academy  has  had  from  the  Presidents  of  its  Board 
of  Trustees,  and  the  High  School  has  from  the  town. 

Although  Mr.  Allen  was  the  first  elected  Presi- 
dent, and,  from  his  position  and  distinguished  char- 
acter, gave  reputation  to  the  Academy  enterprise.  Dr. 
Shepard,  from  the  very  beginning,  was  its  real  pre- 
siding genius.  He  was  made  chairman  of  the  man- 
aging committee  at  the  same  time  that  Mr.  Allen 
was  made  President,  and  in  1810  he  was  elected  Pres- 
ident. He  attended  nearly  every  meeting  of  the  Trus- 
tees, every  examination  and  exhibition ;  he  was  a 
scholarly  and  cultivated  man,  and  for  over  forty  years 
the  Academy,  next  after  his  Church,  was  the  pride 
of  his  life. 

Rev.  Henry  Neill,  elected  President  May  12th, 
1847,  realized  how  difficult  it  was  to  fill  the  position 
so  long  held  by  Dr.  Shepard.  He  realized  also  how 
essential  a  thrifty  school  of  high  grade  was  to  the 
well  being  of  community  and  church,  and  this  he  at- 
tested by  his  active  interest  in  and  efficient  aid  to  both 
teachers  and  students. 

Rev.  Edmund  K.  Alden  was  elected  President 
March  28th,  1855.  From  Amherst  College,  he  had, 
a  few  years  previous,  graduated  as  the  valedictorian 
of  his  class.  During  the  few  years  of  his  residence 
here  he  was  interested,  attentive,  and  helpful  in  every- 
thing pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  school,  as  be- 
came a  man  with  his  ancestry  and  his  place  of  na- 
tivity in  the  old  Plymouth  Colony. 

(81) 


On  May  13th,  1871,  the  Trustees  elected  Hon. 
Julius  Rockwell  President.  Judge  Rockwell  had  come 
from  Pittsfield  to  Lenox  to  reside  after  a  long  and 
successful  career  at  the  bar  and  in  legislation.  He 
had  been  an  able  lawyer,  several  times  Speaker  of  the 
Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives,  ten  years  a 
member  of  Congress  from  this  District  and  once  a 
United  States  Senator,  and  he  was  then  a  Judge  of 
the  Massachusetts  Superior  Court,  and  of  an  age 
when  most  men  prefer  to  avoid  care  and  responsibil- 
ity. But  Judge  Rockwell  was  always  a  full  citizen; 
he  had  prepared  for  Yale  College  at  Lenox  Acade- 
my and  when  he  accepted  its  presidency  he  did  so 
from  a  sense  of  duty,  and  took  hold  of  his  work  with 
all  the  energy  and  force  of  his  nature.  He  investi- 
,  gated  the  affairs  of  the  corporation,  raised  money  for 
the  Academy  by  subscription,  subscribed  money  him- 
self, devised  ways  and  means  to  m.ake  the  Academy 
more  successful,  several  times  came  from  a  distant 
part  of  the  State  to  be  present  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Trustees.  He  left  nothing  of  duty  pertaining  to  the 
Academy  undone.  Judge  Rockwell  reluctantly  ac- 
cepted the  office  of  school  committeeman  and  for  nine 
years  labored  for  the  good  of  the  public  schools.  He 
counselled  with  and  advised  teachers,  listened  to  the 
complaints  of  pupils  and  their  parents  and  made  har- 
mony wherever  possible.  For  his  services  on  the 
committee  he  never  accepted  compensation.  The 
great  loss  to  Lenox  by  the  death  of  Judge  Rockwell 
is  yet  felt  and  will  be  for  many  years  to  come. 

Catalogues  of  the  Academy  are  incomplete.  Some 
very  prominent  men  received  a  portion  of  their  edu- 
cation there.     Among  them:  Samuel  R.  Betts,  after- 

(32) 


wards  a  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States;  Charles  A.  Dewey,  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts;  Mark  Hopkins  and  Albert 
Hopkins,  of  Williams  College;  David  Dudley  Field, 
of  New  York  City;  Stephen  J.  Field,  a  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States;  Henry  M.  Field, 
the  editor  and  writer ;  Henry  W.  Bishop,  a  Justice 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  of  Massachusetts ; 
Julius  Rockwell,  a  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of 
Massachusetts ;  Ezekiel  R.  Colt,  of  Pittsfield ;  James 
D.  Colt,  a  Justice  .of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  William  L.  Yancey,  a  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Alabama;  Marshall  Wilcox, 
long  the  leader  of  the  Berkshire  Bar;  George  J. 
Tucker,  of  Lenox ;  Robert  W.  Adam,  of  Pittsfield ; 
Charles  J.  Taylor,  of  Great  Barrington ;  James  Brad- 
ford, of  Sheffield ;  John  Branning,  of  Lee ;  George 
P.  Briggs,  Henry  S.  Briggs  and  Charles  N.  Emer- 
son, of  Pittsfield ;  James  T.  Robinson  and  Andrew 
A.  Richmond,  of  Adams;  Henry  W.  Bishop,  Jr.,  of 
Chicago;  David  S.  Egleston  and  Prof.  Thomas  Egle- 
ston,  of  New  York  City;  George  T.  Washburn,  the 
missionary  and  educator;  Marshall  S.  Bidwell,  of 
Monterey;  Alexander  Hyde  and  George  W.  Platner, 
of  Lee;  Lemuel  K.  Strickland,  of  Otis;  Charles  J. 
Kittredge,  of  Hinsdale;  John  A.  Walker,  of  Pitts- 
field; Thomas  G.  Carson,  of  Dalton;  Henry  W. 
Dwight,  of  Stockbridge;  William  T.  Filley,  of  Lanes- 
boro;  Joseph  Tucker,  of  Lenox;  John  S.  Schanck,  of 
Princeton,  N.  J.;  Gilbert  Combs,  of  Freehold,  N.  J.; 
Billings  Palmer,  of  Great  Barrington;  John  C.  Wol- 
cott,  of  Cheshire;  Alfred  M.  Copeland,  of  Spring- 
field, and  many  others  of  prominence. 

(33) 


The  High  School  has  trained  many  young  men 
and  women  to  knowledge  and  good  citizenship. 
Eighty-two  of  them  have  received  special  diplomas 
and  all  of  them  may  be  expected  to  well  sustain  the 
reputation  and  character  of  the  school. 

This  is  something  of  the  story  of  the  Academy, 
very  incomplete,  tedious  and  uninteresting,  maybe, 
but  perhaps  worthy  of  being  told. 

The  value  of  that  which  institutions  like  this  Acad- 
emy and  this  High  School — its  legitimate  successor — 
have  done  and  are  doing  in  the  northern  states  of  this 
country,  to  extend  knowledge,  broaden  minds  and  ele- 
vate character,  can  never  be  measured.  The  last  United 
States  census  showed  that,  of  a  population  of  three 
million  whites  in  the  so-called  Apalachian  region  of 
the  country,  more  than  one  half  could  neither  read  nor 
write.  The  results  of  such  illiteracy  need  no  descrip- 
tion. Climate  and  soil  have  been  more  favorable  to 
the  men  of  the  Carolinas,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
than  to  the  men  of  New  England,  but  their  motives, 
impulses  and  aims  were  different.  That  difference  is 
our  glory.  The  founders  of  Lenox  Academy  and  the 
men  who  have  sustained  it  were  New  England  men, 
with  the  New  England  motives,  impulses  and  aims 
and  a  reasonable  and  proper  gratitude  impels  us,  on 
this  anniversary,  to  recall  and  honor  their  names  and 
virtues. 


(34) 


REV.   FREDERICK  LYNCH, 

Pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  at  Lenox  presided 

at  the  dinner  table  and  at  the  close  of  the  dinner 

spoke  as  follows : 

Probably  no  event  in  recent  years  has  brought  back 
to  Lenox  so  many  gracious  and  distinguished  people 
who  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  dwelt  within  her 
boarders,  and  as  we  look  at  these  men,  youthful  in 
their  old  age,  strong  in  the  midst  of  years,  hopeful 
when  declining  days  make  them  despondent,  coming 
back  with  crowns  of  achievement  won  in  the  great 
world  of  thought  and  action,  we  realize  what  an  in- 
fluence has  been  exerted  upon  their  characters  and 
what  the  Academy,  which  to-day  celebrates  its  birth- 
day, has  done  for  the  shaping  of  their  minds.  We 
welcome  them  heartily  in  the  name  of  the  Academy 
and  of  the  town  itself.  For  so  closely  has  the  school 
been  linked  to  the  life  of  the  town  that  any  celebra- 
tion of  its  greatness  commemorates  the  town  itself, 
and  I  would  especially  call  the  attention  of  the  young- 
er people  present  to  the  older  graduates  who  have 
come  back  to  be  with  us  to-day. 

It  was  a  very  old  poet  who  heard  the  Master  say- 
ing, "Behold  I  set  before  thee  an  open  door",  but  in 
many  other  nations  of  this  world  there  is  no  open  door 
of  the  school  house  into  knowledge,  power  and  oppor- 
tunity. It  was  a  greatness  of  vision  in  our  fore- 
fathers, the  settlers  of  this  country,  that  they,  rig^t 

(35) 


from  the  beginning,  established  schools  and  colleges 
that  the  children  of  America  might  find  an  open  door 
awaiting  them  at  their  birth.  The  glory  of  America 
to-day  is  in  the  fact  that  for  every  boy  and  girl  there 
is  a  door  already  open  out  into  skill  and  wisdom  and 
learning  and  opportunity  and  character.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  some  young  people  hang  around  the 
threshold  of  the  door  instead  of  gladly  going  through 
into  the  realm  of  power  and  liberty  for  one's  faculties. 
These  men  present  with  us  today  are  what  they  are 
because  they  gladly  entered  in  and  lit  their  lamps  at 
the  altar  of  truth.  Let  the  young  men  of  to-day  and 
the  future  see  that  in  America  that  door  is  never 
closed,  that  the  school  is  kept  out  of  politics,  and  that 
the  door  is  opened  for  every  race  and  creed.  Let  us 
thank  God  that  for  one  hundred  years  there  has  beer 
this  open  door  in  Lenox. 


(36) 


PAPER 


GEORGE  H.  TUCKER,  Esq.,  of  Pittsfield. 

To  establish  an  institution  is  one  thing;  to  suc- 
cessfully maintain  and  carry  it  on  for  a  long  term 
of  years  is  quite  another. 

To  the  thoughful  care,  excellent  judgment  and 
prudent  management  of  the  representative  men,  who, 
as  Trustees  and  Officers,  guided  the  early  years  of 
this  seminary  of  learning,  the  centennial  of  whose 
founding  we  now  commemorate,  is  largely  indebt- 
ed for  that  solid  foundation  which,  in  spite  of 
the  uprising  of  many  similar  institutions,  enabled 
it  to  maintain  an  honorable  rank  so  long. 

It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that  while  paying  our  trib- 
ute of  history  and  reminiscence  to  the  institution  it- 
self, we  should  dwell  for  a  brief  space  upon  those 
whose  unwearied  exertions  in  its  pioneer  stage  made 
its  continued  existence  possible. 

First  named  among  the  Trustees  in  the  Act  in- 
corporating the  Academy  was  William  Walker  of 
Lenox,  who  was  born  at  Rehoboth  July  3,  1751.  and 
came  to  Lenox  about  1773.  He  was  a  farmer  and  me- 
chanic, which  occupations  were  often  combined  in 
those  days,  with  also  some  education  as  a  surveyor. 
He  early  enrolled  his  name  among  the  minute  men, 
and  when  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington 
reached  Lenox,  marched  with  Captain  Dibble's  com- 

(37) 


4094S9 


pany  to  the  scene  of  danger.  Sharing  the  varied 
fortunes  of  Colonel  John  Patterson's  regiment,  in 
which  he  held  the  rank  of  First  Lieutenant  and  Ad- 
jutant, he  served  in  the  Canada  campaign  of  1776, 
and  was  in  the  battles  of  Trenton  and  Princeton. 

In  the  spring  of  1777  he  left  the  army,  though 
serving  as  a  volunteer  in  the  battle  of  Bennington, 
and  was  soon  after  appointed  Superintendent  of  the 
recruiting  service  in  this  part  of  Massachusetts.  He 
was  one  of  the  Lenox  signers  of  the  non-importation 
and  non-consumption  agreement  in  1774;  was  a 
member  of  the  convention  that  framed  the  constitu- 
tion of  this  Commonwealth,  and  was  active  on  the 
side  of  government  in  the  Shay's  Insurrection. 
After  the  Revolution,  he  was  engaged  in  the  mer- 
cantile and  iron  business  at  what  is  now  Lenox  Dale. 
He  served  in  both  branches  of  the  Legislature ;  in 
1 78 1  was  appointed  Register  of  Probate  and  in  1795 
Judge  of  Probate,  which  latter  office  he  held  for 
thirty  years.  He  was  one  of  the  foimders  and  first 
president  of  the  Berkshire  County  Bible  Society. 

Judge  Walker  was  a  man  of  great  personal  dig- 
nity, distinguished  for  excellence  of  character  and  of  a 
companionable  nature.  Persons  of  all  ages  sought 
his  society,  and  from  his  general  intelligence, 
practical  wisdom  and  bright  example,  were  stimulat- 
ed to  improvement.  He  was  an  efficient  member  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Academy  for  twenty- 
eight  years,  and  until  his  death,  October  31st,   1831. 

Rev.  Samuel  Shepard  in  1810  succeeded  Rev. 
Thomas  Allen  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
and  held  the  office  until  his  death.  Dr.  Shepard  was 
distinguished  for  promptness,  accuracy  and  punctual- 
ess  ) 


ity  to  every  engagement.  His  connection  with  the 
Academy  was  as  honorable  to  himself  as  it  was  useful 
to  the  institution  and  we  find  him  attending  every 
meeting  but  two  of  the  Board  from  its  beginning  until 
his  death. 

Dr.  Shepard  was  born  in  Chatham  (now  Port- 
land) Conn.,  November  19,  1772.  He  early  exhibited 
a  fondness  for  study  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
taught  school  for  about  a  year,  and  graduated 
from  Yale  in  1793.  He  was  installed  pastor  of  the 
Congregational  Church  in  Lenox  April  30,  1795,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  and  for  the  almost  unprece- 
dented period  of  fifty-one  years  was  pastor  of  the  old 
church  on  the  hill.  He  was  an  uncommon  preacher 
and  possessd  a  remarkable  voice,  was  a  faithful  pastor 
and  was  blessed  with  many  friends.  He  was  a  frank 
man,  speaking  what  he  thought  and  felt,  pos- 
sessed of  remarkable  spirit  and  cheerfulness,  gifted 
in  conversation,  with  a  wonderful  memory  and  noted 
for  his  fund  of  anecdotes. 

From  1806  to  181 3  he  was  a  Trustee  of  Middle- 
bury,  Vt.,  College,  and  from  1808  a  member  of  the 
corporation  of  Williams  College,  and  Vice-President 
of  its  Board  of  Trustees  from  1834  to  the  close  of  his 
life,  January  5,  1846.  The  degree  of  D.  D.  was  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  Union  College  in  1819. 

Major  Azariah  Eggleston  deserves  a  prom- 
inent place  in  the  history  of  the  Academy,  as  he  evi- 
dently did  much  to  bring  about  the  erection  of  the 
building,  its  incorporation  and  its  successful  inception. 
He  was  on  the  original  Superintending  Committee; 
attended  regularly  the  meetings  of  the  Trustees,  and, 
no  doubt,  contributed  largely  to  its  success,  both  in  a 

(39) 


financial  way  and  in  having  its  interests  always  at 
heart.  He  was  a  Massachusetts  man,  being  born  in 
Sheffield  February  23,  1757.  He  removed  to  Pittsfield 
when  a  young  man  and  when  the  news  of  the  battle 
of  Lexington  reached  Berkshire  with  his  three 
younger  brothers,  all  four  in  Captain  Noble's  com- 
pany, after  only  a  few  hours  notice  marched  to  Cam- 
bridge. He  served  in  all  of  the  battles  in  which  Col. 
John  Patterson's  regiment  engaged,  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  crossed  the  Delaware  on  that  dreadful 
Christmas  night,  and  was  with  Washington  during 
the  terrible  winter  at  Valley  Forge.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  and  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Massachusetts  Society.  In  the  trou- 
bles incident  to  the  Shay's  Insurrection,  he  was  a  firm 
supporter  of  the  Government.  At  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  war  he  came  to  Lenox  and  engaged 
there  in  active  business.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
energy^  and  perseverance,  and  for  years  was  among  the 
foremost  and  most  enterprising  citizens  of  the  town. 
Largely  through  his  efforts  the  Episcopal  Church 
was  established  in  Lenox  in  1793.  He  served  in 
both  branches  of  the  Legislature  and  held  various 
local  offices. 

Major  Eggleston  was  unselfish,  genial  and  gener- 
ous. He  always,  expected  the  same  in  others  and  in 
his  old  age  lived  to  be  grievously  disappointed  in 
some  of  those  whom  he  had  both  trusted  and  bene- 
fited. Shortly  before  his  death,  which  occurred  Jan- 
uary 12,  1822,  he  retired  from  active  business. 

Joseph  Goodwin  was  born  at  Boston  December 
29,  1761,  son  of  Benjamin  Goodwin.  He  was  living 
in    Lenox     as    early     as     1784,     was     bred    a    mer- 

(40) 


chant  and  for  a  number  of  years  was  associated  with 
William  Walker  in  the  mercantile  and  iron  business 
at  Lenox  Dale.  He  held  various  town  offices  and 
represented  Lenox  in  the  General  Court  in  1800  and 
1801.  He  was  one  of  the  corporators  and  Directors 
of  the  unfortunate  Berkshire  Bank,  established  at 
Pittsfield  in  1807,  and  on  the  failure  of  that  institu- 
tion, the  Directors  being  held  personally  liable,  was, 
with  his  fellow  Directors,  comimitted  to  jail  and  pe- 
cuniarily ruined.  He  removed  to  Hudson,  N.  Y., 
about  18 14,  and  was  there  engaged  in  business  with 
varying  success,  until  his  death  November  5,   1822. 

Enos  Stone  was  born  in  Litchfield,  Conn.,  August 
5,  1744,  and  was  in  Lenox  as  early  as  1771.  He 
signed  the  non-consumption  agreement  in  1774; 
represented  the  town  in  the  General  Court  for  three 
years  and  held  various  town  offices ;  was  a  Captain 
in  the  Twelfth  Massachusetts  Regiment  from  the  first 
of  January,  1777,  but  being  taken  prisoner  at  Hub- 
bardton,  7th  July,  1777,  and  not  exchanged,  was 
obliged  to  retire  from  the  army. 

Captain  Stone  was  a  leading  citizen  of  Lenox  for 
many  years.  He  removed  to  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in 
1815,  where  he  had  large  landed  interests  and  where 
his  sons  had  previously  settled,  and  where  he  died 
September  2,  1815. 

Eldad  Lewis,  when  made  a  Trustee,  was  a  phy- 
sician in  Lenox.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Trustees 
he  was  chosen  clerk  and  a  member  of  the  Superin- 
tending Committee. 

Dr.  Lewis,  son  of  Capt.  Eldad  Lewis,  was  bom 
in  Southington,  Conn.,  February  7,  1755.  He  was  in 
Lenox  as  early  as   1777,  and    in    the  spring  of  that 

(41) 


year  served  as  surgeon  in  a  Berkshire  militia  detach- 
ment at  Ticonderoga;  and  was  active  on  the  Gov- 
ernment side  during  the  Shay's  Insurrection.  He 
was  the  Lenox  Town  Clerk  from  1794  to  1801,  and 
served  in  other  town  offices ;  was  a  Director  in 
the  Lenox  Library  in  1799.  In  1794  he  made  for 
the  state  a  survey  map  of  the  town.  In  1788  he  re- 
ceived the  honorary  degree  of  A.  M.  from  Yale  Col- 
lege, and,  in  1806,  the  degree  of  S.  M.  S.  from  Wil- 
liams. He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Berkshire 
Medical  Society,  and  delivered  an  oration  at  its  first 
meeting.  He  also  published  several  elaborate  and 
finished  poems  and  addresses  on  other  notable  occa- 
sions. 

About  1816  Dr.  Lewis  removed  to  Newburgh,  N. 
Y.,  where  he  successfully  conducted  a  printing  busi- 
ness and  also  continued  in  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. In  October,  1817,  his  establishment  was  burned, 
and  then  most  of  his  property  was  lost.  He  then  re- 
moved to  New  York  City,  but  afterwards  returned  to 
Newburgh,  where  he  died  July  15,   1825. 

Politically,  he  was  an  ardent  Federalist,  and  dur- 
ing the  campaign  of  1808  printed  a  newspaper — the 
"Lenox  Watchlight" — advocating  his  principles.  He 
was  a  charter  member  and  officer  of  Evening  Star 
Lodge  of  Masons  at  Lenox.  Dr.  Lewis  was  a  mjan  of 
scholarly  attainments,  interested  in  and  laboring  for 
the  interests  of  the  town ;  a  devoted  member  of  the 
Congregational  Church  and  an  eminent  physician. 

Caleb  Hyde  of  Lenox,  the  first  Treasurer,  was 
bom  at  Lebanon,  Conn.,  August  5,  1765.  He  came 
with  his  father.  Gen.  Caleb  Hyde,  to  Lenox  about 
1769.     Dr.  Hyde,  as  he  was  called,  though  an  apothe- 

(42) 


cary  and  not  a  practicing  physician,  established  the 
first  drug  store  in  Lenox  a  little  south  of  the  present 
Town  building.  He  afterwards  bought  the  property 
just  south  of  the  Academy  lot,  and  established  a  drug 
store  there.  He  was  Register  of  Deeds  for  the  Mid- 
dle District  from  1790  to  1796,  and  County  Treasurer 
from  1810  to  1813;  represented  Lenox  in  the  General 
Court  and  was  four  years  a  member  of  the  State  Sen- 
ate. He  removed  to  Stockbridge  a  few  years  before 
his  death,  and  died  there  March  7,  1838.  Dr.  Hyde 
was  a  man  of  affairs,  a  careful  business  man  and 
accumulated  quite  a  property. 

Rev.  Ephraim  Judson,  when  chosen  a  Trustee, 
was  Pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Shef- 
field. He  was  born  in  Woodburn,  Conn.,  December 
5,  1737,  graduated  at  Yale  in  1763,  and  after  pastor- 
ates at  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  Taunton,  Mass.,  was 
settled  at  Sheffield  in   1791,  where  he  died  February 

23,  1813- 

In  person,  Mr.  Judson  was  a  tall,  muscular  man, 
of  commanding  presence,  slow  in  his  movements 
and  enunciation.  He  wore  the  white  wig  of  that 
period,  was  stately  in  his  manners,  yet  affable  and 
pleasant  to  those  well  acquainted  with  him,  a  well- 
read  Divine,  his  sermons  containing  a  large  amount 
of  well  digested  thought. 

Rev.  Jacob  Catlin  of  New  Marlboro  was  born 
at  Harwinton,  Conn.,  March,  1758,  graduated  at  Yale 
in  1784  and  was  settled  at  New  Marlboro  three  years 
later,  remaining  as  pastor  until  his  resignation  in 
1825.  He  was  a  scholarly  man,  and  published  several 
works,  the  most  important  being  a  compendium  of 
theology,  which  passed  through  two  editions.    He  was 

(48) 


a  Trustee  of  Williams  College  from  1807  to  1822.  In 
the  latter  year  he  received  the  degree  of  D.  D.  from; 
Yale.  Dr.  Catlin  was  of  medium  height,  not  fleshy  but 
strongly  made,  with  a  grave,  manly  countenance.  His 
dress  was  always  black,  with  small  clothes  buckled  at 
the  knee,  a  white  stock  buckled  behind,  and  a  hat  of 
large  brim  slightly  turned  up  at  the  sides  and  rear. 
He  was  courteous  in  his  manner,  with  the  kindly 
bow  of  the  olden  time  for  all  he  met.  He  died  April 
12,  1826. 

Thomas  Ives  of  Great  Barrington  was  born  at 
North  Haven,  Conn.,  February  2,  1753.  He  was  a 
student  at  Yale  when  the  Revolutionary  War  broke 
out,  and,  in  common  with  others,  left  the  Institu- 
tion for  a  time  and  did  service  in  the  American  army, 
returning  to  College,  and  graduating  with  the  class  of 
1777.  He  studied  law  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Litchfield  County  bar  in  1780.  He 
was  for  a  time  in  the  law  office  of  Theodore  Sedg- 
wick at  Sheffield,  and  while  there  served  in  the  Berk- 
shire Militia,  with  the  rank  of  Major.  Removing  to 
Great  Barrington  in  1782,  the  following  year  was  ap- 
pointed Collector  of  Impost  and  Excise  for  this 
County.  He  served  in  both  branches  of  the  State 
Legislature. 

As  was  natural  from  his  early  experience,  he  was 
much  interested  in  military  affairs,  and  held  the  rank 
of  General,  by  which  title  he  was  generally  known  in 
later  years,  in  the  Massachusetts  Militia.  He  died 
March  8,  1814. 

Barnabas  Bidwell  of  Stockbridge  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Senate  in  1803,  and  as  such  present- 
ed the  petition  for  the  Incorporation  of  the  Academy, 

(44) 


drew  the  bill  and  greatly  aided  in  its  passage. 
He  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Adonijah  Bidwell  and 
was  born  in  Tyringham  (now  Monterey)  Aug- 
ust 23,  1763.  Graduating  at  Yale  in  1785,  admitted 
to  the  Berkshire  bar  about  1790  becoming  soon  a  lead- 
ing lawyer.  He  was  a  member  of  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  Ninth  Congress, 
1805  to  1807,  and  was  Attorney  General  of  Massa- 
chusetts from  1807  to  1 8 10.  He  was  also  Treasurer 
of  Berkshire  County  from  1791  to  1810.  He  died  at 
Kingston,  Canada,  July  27,  1833. 

Nathaniel  Bishop  of  Richmond  was  born  at 
Guilford,  Conn.,  June  13,  1751,  and  came  to  Rich- 
mond in  1777,  in  the  prime  of  life,  active  and  enter- 
prising, and  soon  taking  a  leading  position  in  the 
town.  A  representative  in  the  Legislature  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  serving  it  faithfully  in  various  capac- 
ities. From  1798  to  1823  he  was  Register  of  Probate, 
and  for  several  years  a  Justice  of  the  County  Court. 
From  1806  to  1810  a  Trustee  of  Williams  College. 
Through  a  long,  and,  for  the  most  part,  an  active 
life  he  commanded  the  respect  of  the  people,  and  en- 
joyed the  esteem  of  a  wide  circle  of  friends.  His 
death  occurred  February  i,  1826. 

Rev.  Thomas  Allen  of  Pittsfield,  first  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  was  born  at  Northampton 
January  17,  1743,  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1762  and 
came  to  Pittsfield  as  first  Pastor  of  its  Congregational 
Church  in  1764.  He  served  the  Church  for  forty-six 
years,  and  died  in  office  February  11,  1810. 

Mr.  Allen  was  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Ameri- 
can cause  in  the  Revolution,  saw  service  as  an  army 
chaplain,  and  as  a    volunteer    at    the    battle  of  Ben- 

(46) 


nington  became  widely  known  as  the  "Fighting  Par- 
son of  Berkshire."  His  connection  with  Lenox  Acad- 
emy had  much  more  than  a  merely  local  influence. 

Simon  Larned  of  Pittsfield,  born  at  Killingly, 
Conn.,  April  13,  1753,  was  a  Revolutionary  officer, 
who,  after  the  war  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits 
in  Pittsfield.  He  represented  the  Berkshire  District 
in  Congress  in  1806  and  1807;  was  sheriff  of  the 
County  for  twenty  years  from  1792,  and  was  in  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  during  the  war  of  1812.  He  was 
a  Director  and  President  of  the  ill-fated  Berkshire 
Bank,  but  through  all  that  trouble  retained  the  con- 
fidence of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  died  November 
16,  1817. 

Joshua  Danforth  of  Pittsfield  was  born  at 
Western  (now  Warren),  Mass.,  November  26,   1759. 

He  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  army, 
coming  to  Pittsfield  in  1784  and  engaging  in  mer- 
cantile business,  holding  a  number  of  public  offices, 
being  a  member  of  the  General  Court,  member  of  the 
Governor's  Council,  United  States  Revenue  Collector, 
etc.  He  was  the  first  postmaster  of  Pittsfield,  and  with 
a  brief  interregnum,  held  that  office  until  his  death, 
January  30,  1837.  A  man  distinguished  for  the  faith- 
ful and  accurate  discharge  of  all  duties  devolved 
upon  him. 

Joseph  Whiton  of  Lee,  born  in  Connecticut,  a 
soldier  of  the  Revolution,  a  prominent  citizen  of  Lee 
from  1787  to  his  death,  August  16,  1828,  completes 
the  list  of  original  Trustees.  The  title  of  General, 
by  which  he  was  known  in  later  years,  was  derived 
from  service  in  the  Massachusetts  Militia,  a  detach- 
ment of  which  he  led  from  Berkshire  to  Boston  dur- 

(46) 


ing  the  war  of  1812.  He  served  in  both  branches  of 
the  General  Court  and  held  numerous  local  offices. 
In  every  position  he  commanded  public  confidence  and 
respect. 

These  brief  sketches  of  the  early  Trustees  of 
Lenox  Academy  show  that  they  were  men  of  weight 
and  influence  in  their  communities  and  in  the  county. 
The  Institution  was  fortunate  indeed  to  command 
the  service  of  such  men. 


(47) 


REMARKS 

BY 

Hon.   MARSHALL  WILCOX,  of  Pittsfield. 
An  Alumnus  of  the  Academy  in  the  '40s. 

I  congratulate  myself  in  being  here  upon  this  in- 
teresting occasion.  For  many  reasons  this  town, 
Lenox,  appeals  to  my  love  and  brings  before  me  asso- 
ciations springing  from  infancy  and  from  the  boyhood 
and  manhood  of  my  life.  My  birth  place  was  in  Stock- 
bridge  near  the  northerly  section  of  the  beautiful 
lake  which  I  used  to  know  by  a  very  appropriate 
name,  as  the  "Stockbridge  Bowl."  From  this  place 
Lenox  village  was  in  plain  view,  over  a  distance,  pos- 
sibly of  a  mile  and  a  half,  sparkling  as  a  gem  in  the 
eastern  sky. 

Lenox  is  fortunate  in  its  topography,  in  the  very 
center  of  our  county,  amid  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
Berkshire.  Greylock  towers  on  the  north,  the  highest 
land  in  Massachusetts  thirty-six  hundred  feet  above 
tide  water  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  as  a  visible  object 
inspires  its  beholders  with  reverence  and  awe.  On  the 
west,  and  within  the  town,  rises  precipitously  a  com- 
manding eminence,  bringing  to  view  the  Hudson 
river  and  the  Catskill  range  of  mountains  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  while  on  the  south  Monument  moun- 
tain and  the  dome  of  Mount  Washington  and  the 
Housatonic  river  each  having  interesting  history  and 
traditions  are  objects  of  interest. 

(48) 


I  venture  to  suggest  the  difficulty  of  elsewhere 
finding  a  locality  richer  in  natural  scenery  or  more  in- 
spiring to  the  educated  and  thoughtful  mind  than 
Lenox  and  its  surroundings. 

Professor  Silliman,  an  eminent  chemist  in  Yale 
College,  while  on  a  tour  from  Hartford  to  Quebec 
some  time  prior  to  1830,  visited  Lenox  and  thus  de- 
scribes the  town :  "Lenox,  the  capital  of  the  county, 
'is  a  town  of  uncommon  beauty.  It  is  built  upon  a 
'hill  on  two  streets  intersecting  each  other  nearly  at 
'right  angles.  It  is  composed  of  handsome  houses, 
'which,  with  exception  of  a  few  brick,  are  painted  of  a 
'brilliant  white.  It  has  two  neat  houses  for  public  wor- 
'ship.  It  has  a  Court  House  of  brick  in  a  fine  style  of 
'architecture ;  it  is  fronted  with  pillars,  and  furnished 
'with  convenient  offices  and  a  spacious  court  room. 
'Lenox  has  fine  mountain  air  and  is  surrounded  by 
'equally  fine  mountain  scenery.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the 
'prettiest  of  our  inland  towns.  White  marble  is  often 
'the  material  of  their  steps,  foundations  and  pave- 
'ments." 

Lenox  was  incorporated  as  a  town  by  the  Provin- 
cial Legislature  of  Massachusetts  in  the  reign  of 
George  the  Third,  1767.  Thirty-six  years  after  in 
1803,  Lenox  Academy  was  incorporated  in  the  third 
year  of  the  Nineteenth  century  (1767),  one  hundred 
years  ago. 

In  Dr.  Field's  history  of  the  County  of  Berkshire, 
the  Academy  is  spoken  of  as  follows : 

"This  institution  is  divided  into  two  departments, 
'both  of  which  are  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
'principal.  The  school  is  composed  principally  of 
'scholars  from  abroad  and  consists  of  youth  of  both 

(49) 


'sexes.  Connected  with  the  Academy  is  a  valuable  li- 
'brary,  containing  between  three  ^and  four  hundred  vol- 
'umes  of  well-chosen  books.  The  Academy  is  in  the 
'center  of  the  County  of  Berkshire.  The  village  in 
'which  it  is  located  is  pleasant  and  healthful,  and  prob- 
*ably  presents  fewer  temptations  to  vice  and  immor- 
'ality  than  almost  any  other  place  containing  an  equal 
'population.  The  inhabitants  are  well  informed,  in- 
'telligent  and  hospitable,  and  may  with  truth  be  said 
'to  be  remarkable  for  their  habits  of  industry,  sobriety, 
'morality  and  order." 

It  is  quite  evident  from  the  conditions  then  exist- 
ing, no  better  place  could  have  been  selected  for  the 
location  of  the  Academy  than  the  town  of  Lenox,  dis- 
tinguised  not  for  its  scenery  merely,  but  also  for  the 
intelligence,  moral  worth,  hospitality  and  courtly  man- 
ners of  its  people.  Mr.  Levi  Gleason,  a  native  of 
Stockbridge,  a  graduate  of  Williams  College,  and  for 
many  years  one  of  its  trustees,  was  the  first  preceptor 
of  the  Academy  and  continued  in  that  position  till  1823, 
and  in  that  period  of  twenty  years  he  brought  the  in- 
stitution into  wide  celebrity. 

Rev.  John  Hotchkin,  a  native  of  Richmond  in 
this  county,  and  a  graduate  of  Union  College,  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Gleason  as  the  principal  of  the  institution, 
and  for  about  twenty-five  years  he  impressed  upon  his 
students  an  appreciation  of  himself  as  a  teacher  and  of 
his  desire  to  train  them  intellectually  and  morally  as 
few  teachers  have  been  able  to  do. 

In  May,  1837,  my  attendance  at  the  Academy  com- 
menced, and  continued  for  three  years  and  one  term, 
when  I  entered  Williams  College,  in  August,  1840.  The 
Academy  at  this  time  had    attained    prominence    and 

(50) 


celebrity.  Its  students  came  not  from  its  immediate 
vicinity  only  but  from  most  every  state  of  our  union 
and  in  some  instances  from  beyond  our  national 
boundaries.  At  the  close  of  each  academic  year  it 
gave  a  public  exhibition  held  in  the  old  meeting  house 
overlooking  the  little  village  below,  and  the  magnifi- 
cent works  of  God  around  it.  In  this  exhibition,  sur- 
prising as  it  may  seem,  people  manifested  remarkable 
interest,  and  came  to  it  not  as  a  gala  day  but  to  em- 
phasize their  appreciation  of  the  good  works  and 
worth  of  the  institution. 

And  lest  it  may  be  overlooked  let  us  also  remem- 
ber that  this  old  meeting  house  was  dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  God  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1806, 
and  will  itself  be  a  century  old  the  first  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1906.  It  stands  on  a  sacred  hill  at  the  gateway  of 
the  cemetery  midst  its  founders ;  and  there,  let  it 
stand,  if  possible,  forever,  a  monument  to  their  works 
and  worth. 

And  furthermore,  let  us  not  omit  to  thank  Mr. 
Post,  for  his  excellent  commemorative  discourse 
which  has  involved  research  and  care,  and  is  certain- 
ly a  production  of  historic  value. 

My  going  to  the  Academy  in  1837  was  with  no 
expectation  of  remaining  there  beyond  two  terms,  and 
of  course  there  was  no  expectation  of  college.  My 
idea  was  to  be  a  farmer,  fitted  to  pursue  that  vocation. 
Even  now,  I  regard  the  vocation  of  the  farmer  as  a 
primitive  calling  on  which  life  depends  and  without  it 
all  human  progress  ends.  It  delights  me  to  be  able 
to  pay  this  tribute  to  the  farmers  who  as  a  class  large- 
ly makes  the  strength  and  true  nobility  of  our  country. 
It  was  not  my  fortune  however  to  be  a  farmer,     Cir- 

(51) 


cumstances  led  me  to  continue  at  the  Academy,  then 
to  college,  and  then  to  the  legal  profession  as  you 
know.  At  the  Academy  dear  associations  were  formed 
and  it  would  please  me  to  review  the  friendships  there 
formed  with  young  men  from  North  and  South,  East 
and  West. 

Mr.  Hotchkin  was  the  principal  of  the  school  in 
1837.  He  used  to  call  himself  "King  John."  He  wel- 
comed me  as  he  did  all  others  into  his  dominion  and 
we  fared  well  under  his  jurisdiction.  He  was  a  su- 
perior teacher.  His  motto  was  "get  what  you  get  got" 
and  this  he  required  to  be  done.  The  requirement 
filled  the  atmosphere  of  the  school  and  swept  through 
halls  every  day.  He  was  a  public  spirited  citizen,  not 
a  shadow  clouded  his  character  and  his  memory  re- 
mains fresh  and  dear  to  all  who  survive  him. 


(62) 


REMARKS 


ROBERT  W.   ADAM,  Esq.,  of  Pittsfield. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  be  present  here  to- 
day, I  find  myself  seated  between  two  associates  and 
friends  of  early  days.  Marshall  and  Charley  they  still 
are  to  me,  and  so  I  still  call  them.  Charley  is  my  seat 
mate  on  my  right  as  he  was  in  the  old  school  room 
many,  many  years  ago,  and  Marshall  is  the  same  cher- 
ished friend  whom  I  have  known  through  this  long 
period  as  school  mate,  college  mate,  man  of  business 
and  neighbor.  But  I  would  rather  listen  than  talk. 
I  want  to  hear  something  which  will  quicken  my 
memory,  by  no  means  dull  however,  of  what  were 
some  of  the  happiest  years  of  my  life.  I  came  here 
in  1835.  My  father  had  been  here  before  me;  about 
1810,  I  think.  Mr.  Gleason  was  my  father's  teacher 
and  I  remember  calling  on  him  with  my  father,  at  his 
home  in  Sheffield,  where  he  lived  after  retiring  from 
the  Academy. 

I  came  into  the  family  of  my  aunt,  Mrs.  William 
I.  Walker,  and  had  an  exceptionally  good  opportunity 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  town  and  its  inhab- 
itants. I  learned  the  town  very  thoroughly  and 
learned  to  love  it.  I  fished  in  its  ponds  and  streams, 
and  if  I  was  not  uniformly  successful,  my  early  ac- 
quaintance with  two  or  three  noted  fishermen  of  the 
day  taught  me  how  to  give  a  fairly  favorable  report. 
I  climbed  old  Bald  Head ;  I  tramped  over  The  Pin- 
acle,  and  I  earned  my  first  pair  of  skates  picking  up 

(63) 


chestnuts  in  the  woods  around  the  site  of  the  present 
Hotel  Aspinwall. 

Lenox  was  then  a  remarkable  town  in  its  inhal>- 
itants.  I  have  never  known  its  superior.  The  name  of 
Shepard,  Walker,  Worthington,  Sedgwick,  Bishop, 
Tucker,  Cook,  Hotchkin,  Post,  Judd,  Brewster,  Mat- 
toon,  Morrell  and  many  others,  then  prominent  here, 
bring  up  the  memory  of  men  in  professional,  business 
and  agricultural  life  such  as  few  towns  could  show. 
They  were  men  of  high  thought,  independent  judg- 
ment, worthy  aspirations,  good  citizens  all. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  last  century  there  was  in 
the  Connecticut  River  valley  a  class  of  men  known 
as  The  River  Gods,  men  well  deserving  the  title. 
Lenox  had  her  Mountain  Gods,  their  equals  in  every 
respect ;  topographically  at  least  on  a  higher  plane, 
nearer  the  Olympian  summit. 

The  Academy  was  then  at  the  height  of  prosperity. 
It  was  found  necessary  to  remodel  the  interior  of  the 
building,  placing  a  double  row  of  desks  around  the 
school  rooms,  and  every  desk  had  its  occupant.  There 
were  many  students  here  from  Albany  and  Troy  and 
others  of  the  river  towns.  They  were  here  in  num- 
bers from  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  there  was  one  boy  from 
Cuba.  I  wonder  if  he  is  living  now,  and  what  and 
where  he  is. 

Of  Mr.  Hotchkin  I  have  a  most  grateful  memory. 
He  was  a  thorough  teacher.  Thoroughness  was  his 
prominent  characteristic.  How  often  have  I  heard 
him  repeat, 

"A  little  farm  well  tilled, 
A  little  lesson  well  drilled", 

(64) 


and  the  unfortunate  youth  who  undertook  a  recitation 
before  him  without  full  preparation  was  sent  back  to 
his  desk  to  complete  the  drilling.  He  had  a  somewhat 
hasty  temper  and  it  occasionally  got  the  better  of  him, 
but  he  was  a  thoroughly  just  man  and  ever  ready  to 
make  amends  for  any  error  hastily  committed.  He 
had  the  respect  and  affection  of  his  pupils.  So  well 
was  he  known  and  appreciated  at  Williamstown  that 
his  certificate  of  fitness  admitted  one  of  his  scholars  to 
the  college  with  merely  a  formal  examination. 

As  I  have  already  said  I  learned  to  love  Lenox, 
and  some  of  the  happiest  years  of  my  life  were  spent 
here.  The  place  has  changed  from  what  it  was.  Pal- 
aces, misnamed  cottages,  are  planted  on  its  hills  and 
wealth  and  fashion  promenade  its  streets,  but  I  still 
see  the  comfortable  old  mansions,  with  their  stately 
occupants  long  passed  away,  and  I  meet  on  the  street 
ingenuous  youths  and  maidens  fair,  grand  parents 
now  if  living,  most  of  them  gone  before.  It  is  the 
privilege  as  well  as  the  pleasure  of  an  old  man  to  live 
much  in  the  past. 

How  many  times,  sitting  here  by  open  window  on 
a  summer  Sabbath  morning,  I  have  caught  the  tones 
of  the  old  church  bell,  as  the  strong  arms  of  Sexton 
Davis  sent  them  rolling  down  the  hill,  crowding  the 
whole  atmosphere  with  sound.  Then  in  the  intervals 
there  would  come  floating  up  the  valley,  softened  and 
mellowed  by  the  distance,  the  sweet  call  of  the  church 
bell  in  Lee.  So  now  in  the  rush,  and  the  press,  and 
the  hurry  of  the  busy  present,  how  often  there  come 
to  me  restful  recollections  of  the  happy,  careless  boy- 
hood of  long  ago. 


(») 


SUMMARY  OF  REMARKS 


OF 


CHARLES  J.  TAYLOR,  Esq.,  of  Great  Barrington. 

Charles  J.  Taylor,  Esq.,  of  Great  Barrington,  a 
student  at  the  Academy  in  the  forties  with  Messrs 
Wilcox  and  Adam,  told  in  a  very  entertaining  and 
interesting  manner  of  his  life  and  experiences  while  at 
school  in  Lenox.  His  recollections  of  Mr.  Hotchkin 
and  his  assistants,  of  Dr.  Shepard,  pastor  of  the  old 
church  on  the  hill,  long  president  of  the  Academy's 
trustees  and  always  alive  and  attentive  to  its  interests, 
of  Dr.  Robert  Worthington,  an  able  and  efficient 
trustee,  of  Judge  Walker,  Charles  Sedgwick  and  of 
many  other  then  prominent  people  of  the  town,  was 
pleasing  and  instructive  to  hear,  and  so  also  was  his 
account  of  the  impressions  made  upon  him  of  the  town, 
its  schools,  churches,  hotels,  prison  and  court  house 
with  its  frequent  and  long  continued  sessions  of  the 
courts. 

Mr.  Taylor's  life  long  interest  in  and  attention  to 
historical  and  biographical  subjects  made  his  remarks 
of  great  value  as  well  as  pleasant  to  hear  and  it  is  to 
our  great  sorrow  and  regret  that  his  passing  away 
occurred  so  soon ;  and  we  do  not  here  attempt  to  do 
justice  to  his  remarks. 


(56) 


REMARKS 

BY 

MATTHEW  H.   BUCKHAM, 

President  of  the  University  of  Vermont. 

It  is  now  just  fifty  years — eheu  fugaces  annos! — 
since  I  left  the  principalship  of  Lenox  Academy  to 
become  an  instructor  in  the  University  of  Vermont. 
Though  I  have  since  that  time  returned  to  Lenox  but 
once,  it  has  all  along  been  like  a  sweet  dream  to  think 
back  upon  my  life  here.  And  now  coming  into  this 
Berkshire  region  in  all  the  pomp  of  its  October 
glories,  and  to  Lenox  in  this  calm  sweet  Indian  sum- 
mer time,  it  is  to  me  like  the  realization  of  a  dream. 
It  is  even  more — for  either  Lenox  has  increased  in 
beauty,  or  in  all  my  dreaming  I  had  not  pictured  it  as 
beautiful  as  it  really  is.  Some  things  disappoint  me. 
When  in  my  rambles  this  morning  I  passed  some  of 
the  fine  old  houses  in  which  once  lived  the  families 
whose  gracious  hospitality  was  one  of  the  charms  of 
the  old  Lenox,  and  was  confronted  by  a  saucy  placard 
warning  me  to  "Keep  off  these  grounds,"  I  could  not 
keep  down  a  little  feeling  of  resentment,  and  a  wonder 
who  these  intruders  might  be  who  presumed  to  shut 
their  doors  and  even  their  door-yards  against  one  who 
used  to  be  welcomed  by  the  Sedgwicks,  the  Walkers, 
the  Tafts,  the  Bishops,  and  the  Tuckers.  How  much 
better,  I  thought  to  myself,  are  these  things  done  by 
the  Webbs,  the  Cannons,  the  Hatches,  the  Holts,  and 


the  Buells  of  Burlington,  where  the  placard  reads, 
"The  Public  are  welcomed  to  these  grounds  on  every 
day  of  the  week  except  Sunday."  But  this  mood 
was  soon  effaced  by  the  sights  and  the  associations  and 
the  memories  which  restored  the  old  glamour  and  re- 
vived the  old  affection.  This  broad,  winding  village 
street,  the  most  beautiful  one  I  know  in  New  Eng- 
land;  these  fine  old  houses  "plain  in  their  neatness"; 
these  elms,  these  gardens ;  this  idyllic  quiet  undis- 
turbed by  any  form  of  modern  locomotion;  the  old 
church  on  the  hill,  standing  where  by  New  England 
tradition  it  ought,  "equally  inconvenient  to  everybody," 
preaching  from  its  vantage-point  to  all  the  region 
round  old  fashioned  piety  and  ever-during  virtue ;  the 
memories  awakened  by  these  scenes,  of  old  faces,  old 
friendships,  old  meetings  and  partings ;  of  one  great 
tragedy,  the  Norwalk  calamity,  which  draped  the 
street  in  gloom ;  the  old  sessions  of  the  court  when 
Lenox  was  the  shire-town ;  memories  of  Hawthorne 
who  came  up  at  4  o'clock  every  afternoon  for  his  mail 
from  his  little  red  cottage  by  the  Stockbridge  Bowl  (I 
wonder  if  it  is  still  "Stockbridge  Bowl"  or  some  new 
lack-a-daisical  name!)  ;  the  delightful  evenings  at  Miss 
Catherine  Sedgwick's ;  the  girls  of  Mrs.  Sedgwick's 
School,  representatives  of  our  "first  families"  in  all  the 
States,  whom  one  met  alike  in  storm  and  shine  out 
for  their  constitutional ;  chestnutting  in  the  fall,  skating 
on  the  ponds  in  the  winter — all  these  things,  for  I  was 
not  much  more  than  a  boy  then, — come  back  to  me  to- 
day in  a  flood  of  reminiscences,  mingling  joy  and  sor- 
row, the  grateful  sense  of  the  good  which  has  been, 
tinged  with  a  sadness  which  is  not  akin  to  pain. 

Naturally  my  thoughts    recall    my  pupils  of  that 

(58) 


far-away  time.  Last  evening  I  visited  the  cemetery 
on  the  hill,  and  I  read  through  tears  the  names  of  old 
pupils  graven  on  stones  already  moss-grown.  Where 
is  she  now,  the  fairest  of  them  all,  under  what  beach- 
en  shade,  by  what  limpid  stream  of  Paradise,  who 
never  could  get  her  subjunctives  and  her  gerundives 
right,  but  who  phrased  the  beauties  of  the  Eclogues 
with  a  felicity  something  like  that  of  Virgil  himself? 
I  recall  a  handsome  little  curly-haired  boy,  the  young- 
est and,  all  said,  the  favorite  pupil  of  the  Principal, 
who  is  now  mine  host  of  this  Curtis  House  and  the 
best-reputed  landlord  of  the  Berkshires.  Two  of  my 
scholars  of  that  time  are  sitting  here  today,  one  the 
orator  of  the  morning  and  the  other  an  honored  guest, 
between  whom  there  was  a  friendly  rivalry,  and  I  was 
proud  of  both. 

But  Lenox  Academy !  It  belongs  to  a  class  of  in- 
stitutions which  I  suppose  have  had  their  day — super- 
seded by  the  High  Schools,  wisely,  no  doubt  on  the 
whole,  but  not  without  some  loss.  To  say  a  word  of 
praise  for  the  old  Academy  is  like  praising  the  old 
Stage-Coach.  But  even  so,  it  shall  not  lack  the  word 
of  praise  from  me.  It  had  this  great  advantage  over 
the  High  School — ^that  it  gave  a  great  opportunity  to 
a  teacher  of  exceptional  personal  gifts  and  power  of 
influence.  What  finer  work  is  ever  done  for  one  hu- 
man soul  by  another  than  that  which  is  done  bv  a 
teacher  who  gives  his  thought,  his  toil,  his  prayers, 
himself,  to  his  pupils — by  Dr.  Arnold  at  Rugby,  by 
the  Scotch  Dominie  in  Drumtochty,  by  this  one  and 
that  one  whose  names  we  cherish  in  our  heart  of 
hearts  though  they  may  be  unknown  to  fame.  And 
what  admiration  and    love    and    gratitude  are  better 

(59) 


earned  or  more  heartily  awarded  than  those  we  give 
to  the  men  or  the  women  who  in  teaching  us  the 
classics,  or  the  mathematics,  or  the  sciences,  teach 
what  is  of  a  thousand  times  more  worth,  truth,  and 
gentleness,  and  courtesy,  and  love  of  home,  friends, 
country  and  God.  The  old  Academy  teacher  had  a 
unique  opportunity  to  do  this  work — and  in  number- 
less cases  he  did  it,  and  did  it  faithfully  and  lovingly; 
and  many  a  man,  who  never  afterwards  went  to  Col- 
lege, got  from  this  training  the  best  part  of  a  liberal 
education  and  rose  to  a  position  of  honor  and  use- 
fulness. The  High  School  teacher  has  not  the  same 
opportunity.  He  is  an  employee  in  an  organization 
which  prescribes  to  him  his  work,  calls  him  to  ac- 
count for  accomplishing  certain  specific  things,  and 
rather  discourages  any  spontaneity  or  initiative  in  him. 
We  have  heard  to-day  admiring  and  loving  words 
spoken  of  Principal  Hotchkin.  Would  the  work  he 
did  in  Lenox  Academy  be  possible  in  a  High  School? 
Do  we  ever,  or  often,  hear  such  words  spoken  of  the 
principal  of  a  High  School?  To  get  prescribed  work 
regularly  done,  to  keep  the  classes  up  to  standard 
grade,  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  regents  or  other 
examiners,  this  is  the  ambition  of  the  High  School 
principal  or  teacher.  But  where  is  the  personal  in- 
terest, the  study  of  individual  capabilities  and  needs, 
the  patience  with  dullness,  the  sympathy  that  discerns 
latent  ability  under  an  unpromising  exterior,  the 
brooding  and  pleading,  the  reproving  frown  which  is 
the  worst  punishment  and  the  encouraging  smile  which 
is  the  highest  reward — where  is  all  this  most  valuable 
of  all  educative  influence,  if  the  teacher  does  not,  so  to 
speak,  live  with  his  pupils,  but  locks  his  doors  against 

(60) 


them,  and  goes  his  own  way,  during  all  but  five  hours 
out  of  the  twenty-four? 

The  High  School  is  our  one  great  American  con- 
tribution to  the  education  of  the  people.  Let  us,  by 
all  means,  maintain  and  complete  it.  But  there  is  a 
place  for  the  endowed  Academy  which  no  other  educa- 
tional institution  can  fill,  and  the  lack  of  which  would 
leave  a  large  amount  of  the  best  talent  undeveloped. 
And  I,  for  one,  should  rejoice  to  see  the  old  Lenox 
Academy  revived  in  a  new  life  in  accordance  with  the 
conditions  of  the  new  generation.  The  wealthy  men 
who  have  come  in  here  and  appropriated  the  beauties 
and  the  charms  of  this  most  lovely  spot,  owe  some  re- 
turns to  the  locality  for  all  that  they  have  received 
from  it.  It  gives  me  great  satisfaction  to  see  what 
they  have  done  for  Church  building  and  for  Church 
life  since  my  home  was  here.  But  I  trust  they  will 
pardon  one  who  is  now  a  stranger  to  Lenox,  and  who 
if  they  will  heed  him  for  this  once,  will  forever  here- 
after "keep  off  their  grounds,"  if  he  suggests  to  them 
that  the  building  and  endowing  of  a  first  class  Acad- 
emy, to  bear  the  old  and  honored  name  of  the  "Lenox 
Academjy,"  would  be  the  recognition  of  a  great  op- 
portunity, and  the  discharge  of  a  part — and  only  a 
part — of  a  great  debt. 


ei) 


REMARKS 


President  HENRY  HOPKINS,  of  Williams  College. 

A  certain  Berkshire  consciousness  has  seemed  to 
mark  every  one  who  has  Hved  in  the  Berkshire  Hills. 
At  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  Lenox  Academy 
there  was  in  the  county  a  high  grade,  homogeneous 
population  of  English  descent.  They  were  industrious, 
frugal,  leading  simple,  earnest  lives,  for  the  most  part 
God-fearing  farmers  ;  there  were  no  very  rich  nor  very 
poor.  Neighborhood  had  meaning  and  moral  earnest- 
ness was  the  fashion.  It  may  fairly  be  asserted  that 
no  more  highly  intelligent,  more  generally  moral,  and 
more  truly  democratic  communities  than  those  were 
have  appeared  anywhere.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  there  did  not  then  exist  upon  the  face  of  the  earth 
a  population  where  there  was  so  high  an  average  of 
intelligence,  of  character,  and  of  genuine  worth.  It  is 
certainly  perfectly  safe  to  assert  that  there  was  no- 
where a  population  upon  whom  could  rest  more  safely 
the  fabric  of  a  free  state. 

From  among  them  emerged  leaders  who  were 
notable  for  the  breadth  of  their  intelligence,  the  exalta- 
tion of  their  character,  and  the  strength  of  their  in- 
fluence. A  similar  class  of  men  in  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  at  about  that  time  used  to  be  called  "the 
River  Gods".  These  men  might  with  equal  propriety 
have  been  called  "the  Gods  of  the  Hills".     To  com- 

(68) 


memorate  their  names  should  be  a  part  of  an  occasion 
like  this. 

These  people  inherited  traditions  of  liberty.  They 
were  patriotic  by  instinct.  Their  fathers  fought  in  the 
colonial  wars,  took  part  in  the  agitation  which  pre- 
ceded the  Revolution,  in  the  battles  which  finished  it, 
and  in  the  debates  which  established  the  Constitu- 
tion. Almost  as  a  matter  of  course  they  believed  in 
education  as  a  necessity  for  the  state  as  well  as  for  the 
individual.  They  believed  in  the  best  and  highest 
things  and  wanted  them  for  their  children.  They 
looked  out  for  one  another,  took  care  of  the  poor,  and 
were  mindful  of  the  broader  interests  of  the  common- 
wealth and  of  the  nascent  Republic. 

Their  ideal  of  the  common  school  had  not  broad- 
ened in  its  scope  to  embrace  the  higher  branches,  so 
that  they  had  to  supplement  it,  and  the  academy  and 
the  college  very  early  appeared.  The  academy  was  a 
natural  evolution.  It  was  a  necessity  and  it  was  for 
a  long  series  of  years  a  success.  The  high  school  is 
demanded  by  our  present  situation,  but  fine  and  strong 
as  it  is  the  going  out  of  the  New  England  academies 
was  a  distinct  loss.  They  gave  something  which  the 
high  school  does  not  and  cannot  really  give. 


(63) 


REMARKS 


Judge  ALFRED  M.  COPELAND,  of  Springfield,  Mass. 

No  words  of  mine  can  make  you  fully  understand 
how  much  pleasure  comes  to  me  from  this  reunion 
with  my  fellow  students  of  Lenox  Academy  more  than 
fifty  years  ago,  and  it  gives  me  no  less  pleasure  to 
meet  our  honored  teacher,  Mr.  Buckham. 

One  cold  afternoon  in  December,  1851,  the  Lenox 
and  Pittsfield  stage  landed  me  safe  and  sound  at  the 
Curtis  Hotel.  I  was  a  stranger  in  Lenox.  The  only 
Lenox  man  I  knew  was  Henry  H.  Cook ;  and  with 
him  was  to  be  my  home  for  a  few  weeks.  At  the  hotel 
I  was  informed  where  he  lived.  As  I  started  on  my 
way  a  man,  under  whose  stove-pipe  hat  a  benevolent 
face  was  beaming  with  kindness,  came  down  the  Court 
house  steps.  Almost  any  one,  even  Scrooge  if  he 
were  living,  would  wish  to  inquire  the  way  of  such  a 
man,  even  if  he  knew  it  by  heart.  "Why,  yes,"  he 
said,  "I  can  tell  you  where  Henry  Cook  lives" — and 
putting  his  arm  round  me  in  a  fatherly  manner,  he 
walked  with  me  to  the  middle  of  the  road  and  pointed 
out  the  very  spot.  It  is  unnecessary  to  give  the  name 
of  that  man  to  any  old  resident  of  Lenox.  You  will 
all  recognize  him  even  by  the  poor  description  I  have 
given.  Every  one  knew  him  and  every  one  loved  him. 
Old  Lenox  was  better  for  his  living  in  it.  Besides 
Judge  Bishop,  were  Mr.  Sedgwick  and  his  good  wife 

(64) 


with  her  splendid  school  for  young  ladies,  who  under 
her  leadership  took  their  daily  constitutionals  through 
the  streets  of  the  town.  Nor  must  we  forget  Dom- 
heim,  her  German  teacher.  And  there  were  the  Tuck- 
ers and  Mr.  Wells,  the  postmaster,  and  the  Curtisses, 
and  if  last,  surely  not  least,  Rev.  Henry  Neill,  who 
preached  in  the  old  church  on  the  hill,  and  a  splendid 
man  he  was.  There  were  a  score  of  other  excellent 
men  and  women  who  created  a  wholesome,  moral  and 
intellectual  and  social  atmosphere  in  the  town,  such 
as  was  not  excelled  any  where.  Not  a  fitter  place 
in  all  New  England  could  have  been  selected  for  the 
old  Academy.  And  it  has  made  a  noble  record,  of 
which  we  are  all  proud. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  found  Henry  Cook's. 
And  there  I  found  Mr.  Buckham — the  very  man  I 
most  wished  to  see.  The  winter  term  of  the  Academy 
had  begun ;  and  the  question  was,  where  would  I  fit 
in?  Some  tests  were  given  and  in  a  day  or  two  I 
went  into  school  and  was  placed  where  I  could  do  the 
best  work.  From  the  start  I  felt  that  Mr.  Buckham 
was  my  friend — we  all  felt  so.  He  was  a  gentleman, 
manly  and  impartial.  His  pupils  all  held  him  in  high 
esteem ;  and  as  the  years  rolled  on  and  we  saw  his  ad- 
vancement to  the  presidency  of  his  alma  mater,  none 
rejoiced  at  his  good  fortune  more  than  did  his  old 
pupils  of  Lenox  Academy.  The  school  grew  under 
his  management,  and  in  a  few  weeks  it  became  neces- 
sary to  use  the  north  room  in  addition  to  the  south  one. 
When  he  proposed  to  put  me  in  charge  of  the  north 
room  and  of  a  class  of  lads  I  accepted  the  charge  with 
a  feeling  of  honest  pride.  The  pupils  in  both  rooms 
were  busy  as  bees,  and    we    accomplished  results  of 

(66) 


which  we  all  were  proud.  The  occasional  visits  of 
Mr.  Neill  and  of  "Old  Master  Hotchkin,"  as  he  was 
called,  were  welcomed  and  were  inspiring.  At  the  close 
of  the  winter  term  preparations  were  made  for  a  grand 
exhibition  to  be  held  in  the  old  church.  We  were  to 
get  up  and  give  an  original  dialogue,  and  we  gave  it 
in  good  style.  There  also  were  original  declamations, 
composed  by  the  orators  themselves.  A  prize  con- 
sisting of  a  six-volumed  edition  of  Gibbon's  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  pledged.  It  was 
generally  believed  it  lay  between  Post  and  me.  Being 
already  the  happy  owner  of  this  work,  I  hoped  that 
Post  would  win  it  and  he  did.  We  all  felt  that  we  had 
covered  ourselves  with  glory,  filled  our  teacher's 
heart  with  sunshine  and  painted  the  old  Academy  red. 

In  the  autumn  of  1852,  we,  who  were  in  the  Virgil 
class,  were  making  written  translations  of  the  Bucol- 
ics. The  season  of  year,  our  love  of  out-of-door  life 
and  of  nature,  with  the  eminently  fitting  surroundings 
of  autumnal  scenery  in  old  Berkshire,  so  harmonized 
with  our  work,  that  my  recollection  of  it  is  like  that 
of  a  delightful  dream.  But  this  was  my  last  term.  I 
left  it  to  teach  school. 

It  used  to  be  said  of  old  Master  Hotchkin  that  it 
was  a  saying  of  his  to  his  pupils,  "Whatever  you  get 
get  it  got."  It  would  be  a  happy  event  if  this  were 
adopted  as  the  key-note  of  modern  education.  '^Get 
it  got,"  alas,  our  public  schools  of  to-day  do  not  get 
anything  got.  The  pupils  are  made  to  learn  a  little 
of  almost  everything,  without  knowing  much  of  any- 
thing, and  we  call  this  education.  Gradgrind  said, 
give  the  children  nothing  but  facts.     But  giving  them 


(66) 


facts  is  simply  giving  them  information,  which  is  not 
worthy  to  be  called  education. 

A  teacher  in  Springfield  one  day  said  to  me, 
"There  are  so  many  things  crowded  into  the  schools 
that  we  teachers  have  to  hurry  to  get  through  our 
work."  Hurry  may  do  in  some  things,  but  it  will 
never  do  in  educating  the  young.  Too  much  of  the 
work  is  done  by  the  teacher  and  too  little  by  the  pupil. 
If  the  master  of  a  gymnasium  were  to  undertake  to 
teach  simply  by  exhibiting  to  his  pupils  athletic  feats 
would  that  make  the  pupils  strong  of  muscle?  Would 
it  make  them  athletes?  One  object  of  education  is  to 
make  the  brain  strong  and  fit  it  for  hard  work.  There 
is  but  one  possible  way  to  accomplish  that  result.  The 
men  and  women  of  other  days  who  have  been  referred 
to  to-day  as  the  giants  of  a  past  generation  were  not 
developed  by  having  their  tasks  done  for  them.  They 
learned  how  to  do  things  by  doing  them  themselves. 
So  our  school  children  can  learn  how  to  use  their 
minds,  only  by  doing  mental  work  for  themselves. 
We  have  not  improved  upon  the  old  methods.  Is  it 
not  time  to  return  to  that  better  system  of  education 
that  educates?  Something  that  will  strengthen  the 
brain  and  fit  it  for  hard  work. 


(67) 


REMARKS 


Rev.  fritz  W.  BALDWIN,  D.D.,  Orange,  N.  J. 

I  count  it  a  great  privilege  to  be  able  to  join  with 
you  to-day  in  this  celebration.  I  listened  with  deep 
interest  to  the  opening  address  by  Judge  Tucker  and 
to  the  admirable  historical  paper  by  Mr.  Post.  It  has 
been  pleasant  also  to  hear  from  some  of  these  vener- 
able men  who  attended  Lenox  Academy  in  the  days 
of  its  prime. 

My  own  connection  with  Lenox  dates  from  the 
spring  of  1872,  when,  scarcely  as  yet  out  of  college, 
I  came  here  from  Maine  to  be  for  two  years  the 
principal  of  the  recently  organized  high  school.  Even 
then  the  old  Academy  was  little  more  than  a  tradi- 
tion, and  the  chief  function  of  its  trustees  seemed  to 
be,  as  I  believe  it  still  is,  to  provide  a  building  for 
the  public  high  school. 

From  appearances  here  to-day  no  stranger  would 
gather  that  we  were  celebrating  the  anniversary  of  a 
defunct  institution.  This  is  about  the  liveliest  corpse 
I  have  seen  in  many  a  day.  Evidently  the  trustees 
do  not  intend  that  the  "Nunc  Dimittis"  shall  be  sung 
over  its  remains  just  yet;  and  I  am  glad,  for  some 
day  the  heart  of  some  Lenox  millionaire  may  be 
moved  to  endow  this  ancient  and  honorable  institu- 
tion, making  it  again  a  high-grade  school,  one  of 
Berkshire's  gems.  That  would  be  better  than  a  half 
dozen  new  villas;  it  would  revive  a  noble  past,  and 
help  to  bring  back  something  of  that  ancient  social 

(68) 


and  intellectual  atmosphere  which  is  one  of  the  town's 
proudest  memories. 

I  have  always  had  a  deep  love  for  Lenox.  Why 
should  I  not?  I  found  here  the  young  lady  who  has 
ever  since  been  the  first  lady  in  the  world  to  me.  I 
made  here  many  warm  and  true  friends,  some  of 
whom  I  see  around  me  to-day.  I  found  here  what 
so  many  others  have  found, — perpetual  joy  in  these 
beautiful  hills  and  valleys;  they  touched  my  imagpina- 
tion  and  fed  my  mind.  The  modern  Lenox  is  rich 
and  stately,  but  the  old  Lenox  had  its  own  peculiar 
charm, — and  the  hills  are  the  same  forever. 

Of  one  man  especially  I  think  to-day,  whose  ashes 
rest  in  yonder  churchyard,  whose  memory  every  one 
interested  in  the  Lenox  schools  should  cherish  with 
gratitude — Judge  Julius  Rockwell.  He  was  chairman 
of  the  school  board  in  my  time,  and  gave  his  time  and 
thought  to  the  youth  of  this  town  as  faithfully  as  to 
the  larger  duties  of  his  judicial  office.  He  used  to  say 
to  me  that  he  knew  of  no  other  way  in  which  he 
could  benefit  his  town  so  much  as  by  seeking  to  ele- 
vate the  character  of  the  schools.  We  all  know  that 
the  New  England  school  house  has  ever  been  one  of 
the  cornerstones  of  New  England's  greatness.  Many 
of  the  old  academies  have  given  way  to  the  modem 
high  school,  and  that  is  well,  but  there  is  still  a  place 
for  the  endowed  academy,  especially  as  a  fitting 
school  for  our  colleges  and  universities,  and  I  trust  that 
when  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  this  Acade- 
my is  celebrated  it  will  be  one  of  the  great  schools  of 
Massachusetts,  feeding  Berkshire's  noble  college  in 
Williamstown,  and  sending  its  light  and  power  far 
away  beyond  the  Berkshire  hills. 

(W) 


REMARKS 

BY 

Rev.   WILLIAM  J.   DOWER, 
Pastor  of  St.  Anne's  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Lenox. 

The  Rev.  Toastmaster  has  just  alluded  to  me — in 
all  good  nature  it  is  true — as  one  not  to  the  manor 
bom,  an  alien,  as  it  were,  in  race  and  creed  to  tht 
founders  of  the  institutions  whose  centenniel  we  an 
gathered  here  to  celebrate. 

Although  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  bom  in  his- 
toric Cambridge,  I  admit  the  truth  of  the  Toast- 
master's  charge  to  a  certain  degree.  I  claim  at  the 
same  time,  however,  that  one  of  the  creed  and  of  the 
race  to  which  I  am  proud  to  owe  my  origin  is  under 
no  obligations  to  apologize  for  his  presence  on 
American  soil.  History  bears  me  out  in  my  assertion 
— the  history  of  our  common  country,  the  history  of 
our  state,  and  even  the  history  of  our  own  town. 

Here  few  names  are  held  in  higher  regard,  few 
more  revered,  than  that  of  the  Irishman  and  the  de- 
/out  Catholic,  Patrick  Plunkett.  Had  he  never 
quitted  his  native  shore  the  loss  to  Lenox  would  have 
been,  though  undreamed  of,  yet  great.  Had  he  re- 
mained satisfied  with  the  lot  of  the  Irish  Catholic  of 
the  period — that  of  Political  slavery  and  of  persecu- 
tion on  account  of  Religion — what  a  misfortune  would 
have  resulted  to  Berkshire  County. 

Indeed,  I  know  you  will  bear  me  out  when  I  say 
that  were  we  compelled  to  erase  the  name  of  Patrick 

(70) 


Plunkett  from  amongst  those  of  the  makers  of  Lenox 
we  would  also  be  constrained  to  blot  out  many  bril- 
liant pages  in  the  industrial  and  political  history,  not 
only  of  Berkshire  County,  but  of  Massachusetts  as 
well.  This  is  but  a  case  in  point ;  I  mention  it  par- 
ticularly, because  it  is  so  well  known  and  comes  home 
to  us  here  assembled  with  peculiar  force. 

But  enough  of  this.  It  is  hardly  to  the  point  on 
the  present  occasion,  but  was  drawn  from  me  by  the 
good-natured  remarks  of  the  toastmaster. 

In  claiming  due  honor  for  men  of  the  stamp  of 
him,  to  whom  I  have  referred,  I  realize  that  they 
owed  as  much,  if  not  more,  to  America  and  its  insti- 
tutions than  America  owes  to  them.  In  giving  their 
best  to  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  their 
adopted  country,  they  but  paid  a  just  debt,  and 
showed  due  appreciation  of  benefits  received.  Con- 
sider the  vista  that  opened  up  to  the  mental  vision  of 
the  emigrant  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  once  that  vision 
became  adjusted  to  the  new  light  of  freedom — which 
at  first  must  have  almost  dazzled — a  vista  of  equality 
and  of  fraternity  between  man  and  man,  and  of  op- 
portunities for  the  gaining  of  emoluments  and  of 
honors  never  dreamed  of  by  the  toiling  masses  of 
Europe. 

But  thrice  happy,  the  emigrant  whom  fortune  led 
to  Berkshire  County.  For  here  he  found  himself, 
from  the  beginning,  amongst  manly  men,  of  liberal 
mind,  who  were  ever  ready  to  assist  the  new  comer 
in  the  first  days  of  poverty  and  trial.  I  believe  my- 
self, that  nature,  from  the  first  had  placed  the  seal  of 
her  nobility  on  the  original  settlers  of  Lenox,  and 
that  the  grandeur  of  the  environment  has  only  pre- 

(71) 


served,  perhaps  enhanced,  the  orig-inal  strain  in  their 
descendents. 

I  remember  well  the  words  of  an  aged  priest,  who 
did  duty  in  Berkshire,  in  the  so  called  No  Nothing 
Times.  "Of  all  my  early  missionary  days,"  he  said, 
"I  remember  with  most  pleasure  those  spent  in  Berk- 
shire." "There  I  found  none  but  gentlemen;  there  I 
met  with  respect,  and  encouragement  on  every  side." 
Coming  as  I  did,  a  stranger  to  Lenox,  nearly  twelve 
years  ago,  I  had  reason  to  remember  the  words  of  the 
aged  Missioner. 

His  experience  became  my  own,  and  I  now  take 
sincere  pleasure  in  acknowledging  the  friendly  wel- 
come and  warm  hearted  encouragement  from  all  class- 
es, which  made  my  early  work  in  Lenox,  though 
laborious  to  a  degree,  yet  full  of  consolation  and  hap- 
piness. Fortunate  indeed  was  the  old  Academy  to 
find  a  home  in  this  town  of  culture,  amidst  a  people 
of  generous  impulses.  It  could  not  fail  to  drink  in 
the  spirit  of  its  surroundings,  to  impart  this  spirit  to 
its  pupils,  and  to  send  them  forth  to  diffuse  the  same 
over  all  our  broad  land.  The  mission  of  the  Academy 
was  in  a  certain  sense,  I  presume,  similar  to  that  of  the 
small  college  of  the  present  day.  Recent  events  have 
constrained  me  to  the  belief  that  to  the  small  college  we 
must  look,  rather  than  to  the  grand  university  for  the 
instilling  of  those  principles,  and  the  up-holding  of 
those  ideals,  which  were  the  incentives  that  urged 
the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  to  their  Supreme  endeav- 
ors and  their  noble  Sacrifices.  To  the  smaller  col- 
leges we  must  look  for  men  to  speak  out  and  fear 
not. 


(Ti) 


Not  long  ago,  on  the  platform  of  this  very  hall, 
stood  a  professor  connected  with  one  of  our  smaller 
colleges.  Clearly  and  scathingly  did  he  lay  bare  and 
rebuke  the  corruption  of  certain  unlawful  combina- 
tions of  capital,  dauntlessly  did  he  assert  the  rights 
of  the  people. 

Then  and  there,  did  I  become  convinced  that  to 
men  of  his  stamp  and  to  institutions,  such  as  he  rep- 
resented, must  we  look  for  the  proper  and  safe  edu- 
cation of  the  youth  of  to-day,  of  the  leaders  of  the 
future.  If,  as  has  been  pithily  said,  "Mark  Hopkins, 
seated  on  one  end  of  a  log  and  a  student  seated  on 
the  other  end  were  university  enough,"  it  must  be 
conceded,  that  grand  and  costly  edifices,  or  any  col- 
lection of  the  same,  avail  little  of  themselves,  if  the 
true  educational  spirit  has  departed  from  within  their 
walls,  or  independent  utterance  be  denied  the  profes- 
sors, who  dispense  knowledge  therein. 

Finally,  since  time  presses,  I  would  but  add  that 
the  presence  here  of  so  many  who  have  won  enviable 
distinction  in  various  walks  of  life,  who  have,  in 
many  cases,  made  evident  sacrifice  of  time  and  com- 
fort to  do  honor  to  their  first  Alma  Mater,  of  so 
many  venerable  by  virtue  as  well  as  by  years, — ^this 
alone  I  say,  proves  to  us  of  later  day  that  our  Acad- 
emy must  have  been  truly  a  model  of  its  kind,  must 
have  deserved  well  of  all  who  had  the  good  fortune 
and  to  drink  at  its  fountains  of  Science  and  Truth,  and 
must  have  done  noble  work  in  the  forming  and  the 
up-building  of  the  characters  of  the  men  of  its  time. 

As  a  member  of  the  present  school  committee,  a 
last  word  may  be  permitted  me.  The  Academy 
building  has  been  for  years  the  home  of  the  Lenox 

(73> 


High  School.  Needless  to  say  that  the  traditions  and 
the  memories  which  cluster  around  the  ancient  edi- 
fice are  cherished  by  the  teachers  and  pupils  who  now 
occupy  it.  Needless  to  say,  that  these  traditions  and 
these  memories  form  an  incentive  to  high  endeavors 
on  the  part  of  both. 

Finally,  the  committee  and  the  citizens  of  Lenox, 
as  far  as  their  means  allow,  are  constant  in  their  en- 
deavors to  make  the  Lenox  High  School  a  worthy 
successor  to  the  Academy  of  other  days,  and  especial- 
ly are  they  solicitous  to  preserve  amongst  the  pupils 
of  the  present  day  that  spirit  of  refinement  and  of 
high  purpose  which  made  the  graduates  of  the  Old 
Academy  such  useful  and  honored  members  of  the 
communities  in  which  they  lived. 


(74) 


The  foregoing  pages  contain  a  substantially  correct 
account  of  the  celebration  of  the  Academy's  centennial. 
The  day  was  fine,  the  weather  being  ideal  even  for  this 
Berkshire  region  in  early  October.  The  new  town  hall, — 
well  adapted  to  a  large  assemblage  was  filled  with  an 
appreciative  audience, — friends  and  alumni  of  the  old  Acad- 
emy, and  friends,  alumni  and  students  of  the  High  School. 
The  orchestral  music  and  the  singing  by  the  High  school 
students  were  both  excellent  and  in  fine  taste.  The  dinner 
in  the  assembly  room  of  Sedgwick  Hall,  the  use  of  which 
was  generously  tendered  for  the  occasion,  was  choice,  beau- 
tifully served  and  all  that  could  be  desired.  Old  acquain- 
tances and  friendships  of  former  years  were  revived,  life 
experiences  recounted,  and  the  day  was  passed  in  a  manner 
fittingly  commemorative  of  an  honorable  past  of  the 
Academy,  and,  we  hope,  inspiring  to  a  noble  future  for  the 
High  School. 

Thomas  Post, 

Charles  C,  Flint, 

Committee  of  Publication. 


(76) 


LIST  OF  TRUSTEES 

OF  Lenox  Academy  from  1803  to  1903. 


William  Walker, 
Samuel  Shepard, 

AZARIAH  EGLESTON, 

Joseph  Goodwin, 
Eldad  Lewis, 
Enos  Stone. 
Caleb  Hyde, 
Ephraim  Judson, 


Jacob  Catlin, 
Thomas  Ives, 
Barnabas  Bid  well, 
Nathaniel  Bishop 
Thomas  Allen, 
Simon  Larned, 
Joshua  Danporth, 
Joseph  Whiton, 


Trustees  Named  in  Lenox  Academy  Charter. 


Augustus  Sherill 
William  Allen 
William  P.  Walker  . 
James  Bradford 
James  W.  Robbins 
Charles  Worthington 
Henry  W.  Bishop,  Sr. 
William  Porter,    . 
Alvan  Hyde 
Robert  Worthington 
George  J.  Tucker 
Edwin  W.  D wight 
Robbins  Kellogg 
Eber  S.  Clark 
Henry  W.  Tapt 
Henry  Neill 
Thomas  Twining 
William  A.  Phelps 
Henry  H.  Cook 
John  Hotchkin 


Elected        May  8, 

1811 

. 

. 

May  8, 

1811 

May  11, 

1814 

May  11, 

1814 

May  1, 

1816 

April  30, 

1817 

May  20, 

1823 

Day  20, 

1823 

June  28, 

1826  » 

June  28, 

1826 

May  19, 

1828 

May  13. 

1829 

May  18. 

1829 

May  12, 

1847 

May  12. 

1847 

May  12, 

1847 

May  12, 

1847 

•      "             May  12, 

1847 

May  12. 

1847 

June  26, 

1847 

(T«) 


Charles  Sedgwick 

.    Elected         May  8.  1852 

William  James 

Aug.  28,  1852 

Edmund  K.  Alden 

March  28,  1855 

Charles  S.  Renshaw 

March  28,  1855 

Nahum  Gale 

March  28,  1855 

Marshall  Wilcox 

March  28,  1855 

Julius  Rockwell 

April  14.  1866 

Thomas  Post 

April  14,  1866 

Richard  Goodman 

April  14,  1866 

Joseph  Tucker    . 

May  13,  1871 

Henry  W.  Bishop.  Jr.    . 

May  13,  1871 

Justin  Field 

May  13,  1871 

Richard  T.  Auchmuty    . 

Sept.  10,  1879 

Charles  H.  Parkhurst 

Sept.  10.  1879 

Frederick  W.  Rackemann 

Sept.  10,  1879 

F.  Aug.  Schermerhorn 

Sept.  10.  1879 

William  R.  Robeson 

June  28,  1880 

Henry  Sedgwick 

June  28,  1880 

Richard  C.  Greenleaf 

June  28,  1880 

William  D.  Curtis     . 

June  28,  1880 

Charles  S.  Rackemann 

Feb.  7,  1885 

Frlderick  J.  Lynch 

June  30,  1903 

Harold  Arrowsmith 

June  30,  1903 

William  J.  Dower 

June  30,  1903 

Edward  McDonald 

June  30,  1903 

Henry  P.  Jaques 

June  30,  1903 

George  H.  Tucker 

June  30,  1903 

Lenox  School  Committee,    1903. 

Maurice  J.  Roche, 
Charles  C.  Flint, 
William  J.  Dower. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR  n 


ILL- 


APR0219S9 


Form  L9-25m-8,'46(9852)444 


iiNiVKKSlTY  OFCALIFORNU 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

LIBRARY 


Lenox  J   Ivlaso. 


W 

7501     Lenox  high 

J^5-U3  school^ 

1905  One  hundredth 
anniversary  of 


the 
uf-fce 


f bunding 


lox  academy, 


ID 
7501 

L54A3 
1905 


UCLA-Young  Research   Library 

LD7501.L54  A3   1905 
y 


L  009  575  817  3 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA     001  325  972 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA-LOS  ANGELES 


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